STOURBRIDGE police say crime in the town is down thanks to new Neighbourhood Policing initiatives, although booze-fuelled incidents continue to blight busy weekend nights.

The town's top cop Inspector Phil Boardman said there have been clear reductions in most crime categories, particularly vehicle crime and burglaries, the latter of which has fallen by more than 17 per cent.

However due to soaring violent crime in the first six months of 2006, the end of year figures (due in April) will no doubt appear high.

He said: "Our year till September 2006 was showing worrying increases in our total crime, but this has been turned round since the New Neighbourhood Teams were set up. Since then crime figures have fallen.

"What's changed is the way we communicate with local communities through the new Partnership And Communities Together (PACT) meetings.

"We have dedicated officers listening to and acting on information from local residents, and we have committed officers responding 24 hours a day and specialist officers that manage frequent offenders thereby reducing their impact on crime."

However he said Operation Flent 2 - a night-time initiative involving pub patrols and partnerships with boozer bosses - was starting to prove effective.

Inspector Boardman will present future policing strategies and results from the previous 11 months at the Stourbridge and Lye Police Sector Committee meeting at Stourbridge Town Hall's Amblecote Room at 7.15pm on Monday March 19.