Police urge residents to report suspicious activity - after lights turned off

The message follows concerns that crime has risen after the decision was taken to turn off some street lights during the night.

Insp Colin Haigh, from the Coast Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “I am hearing a lot of anecdotal reports of criminal activity that is being committed during the hours of darkness but the fact is that people are not reporting these incidents to the police. This makes it hard to direct police resources to crime hot spots at the relevant times.

“The main type of crime that people are concerned about are burglary offences and damage to and theft from vehicles but I can reassure the public that we have not seen a sudden increase in these types of crime. Having said that, we should not become complacent and I encourage everyone to report any criminal activity so it can be thoroughly investigated.”