AN inspection report into police forces in England and Wales has revealed that Cheshire is an 'extremely safe place to live'.

The report, carried out by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, produced a comparison of the performance of different forces against a series of Home Office priorities and other indicators.

A main priority is targeting and reducing problems of crime and disorder working with local authorities, other groups and the public.

The figure for Cheshire of 66 recordable crimes per 1,000 head of the population is eighth lowest in the country.

The same approach is applied to drug related crime with Cheshire's figure for arrests placing the police well within the top half nationally.

The detection of offences of violence was also a key objective with Cheshire recording the sixth best performance in the country with a detection rate of 88 per cent.

In the detection of burglaries Cheshire Police maintained its record and also compared favourably with other forces in cases such as police sickness absence and medical retirements.

The report was welcomed by Cheshire Chief Constable Nigel Burgess, who said: "The inspection report confirms that Cheshire continues to be one of the safest areas in the country.

It bears testament to the hard work and dedication of the officers and support staff of the Constabulary and the effort put in by our many partners, including individual members of the public, in reducing and detecting crime and improving the quality of life."

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