ONLY a third of Congleton and Alsager people would feel safe walking by themselves through their town centre after dark.

The figures emerged from a survey of crime and community safety, which showed people's fear of crime was far higher than the reality.

The survey was carried out by the borough council, and revealed just 33 and 36 per cent of people would feel safe out alone at night in the centre of Alsager and Congleton respectively.

That compares with 60 per cent who would feel safe in their own neighbourhood.

Almost 2,500 homes took part in the survey, which sought to discover the extent of fear of crime and what crimes concerned people most.

Crime in Congleton accounted for 37 per cent of the borough total for the year to September, affecting seven people in every 100, with vandalism to cars being the most common crime.

There were almost 1,500 incidents of recorded crime in the town over the past year, although crime in Congleton fell 7 per cent, compared with a rise in Alsager.

The crime rate for Congleton for 1998 was 69 people in 1,000, compared with 37 for Alsager, 47 for the borough as a whole and 87 for England and Wales.

Just four per cent of homes were broken into, although 67 per cent of people were worried about being burgled.

There were 3,969 recorded crimes across the borough for the year to September 30, an increase over the previous year, with criminal damage accounting for one in five crimes.

The survey and crime study identified a number of key priorities for a steering group set up to look at community safety.

These include targeting high volume crime such as car and business crime, house burglaries and working with young people to reduce crime.

''The local authority has been working with the police, probation and youth services and chamber of commerce and industry for 18 months to reduce crime, fear of crime and anti-social behaviour,'' said a borough council spokesman.

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