A POLICE inspector says he hopes to continue cutting down on vandalism in a Furness town after revealing that the problem had risen by 15 per cent over the past year.

Insp Richard Vernon said there had been 363 incidents of criminal damage in Ulverston since March last year, compared with 314 for the same period from March 2005 to March 2006.

But Mr Vernon pointed out that the situation had greatly improved since the trouble peaked in May and June.

He said: "It (the 15 per cent increase) is not a figure I'm particularly pleased with of course.

"I could point to a particular time of the year, last year, in May and June when figures seem to be really, really high for some reason.

"I do not know if that was two or three particular culprits that were causing that problem but things have now got back to more normal levels, and I'm satisfied that we are back to the levels that I would accept as being below the norm.

"The challenge is to keep that down through the spring and summer months when it tends to increase."

Mr Vernon added that although the majority of young people in the town were well behaved, he said there was a minority which caused trouble and he aimed to target this further over the next 12 months.

Mr Vernon said he was pleased that the amount of assaults in the town had fallen from 159 to 103 - a 35 per cent decrease. Burglaries had also fallen over the past year.

Mr Vernon said: "Two years ago there were 21. Last year, seven, and I was really pleased about that but you fear that it might backfire. But we have had six this past year.

"I want to do my bit to get burglaries off the list but six for a town the size of Ulverston is fairly good."

Theft from vehicles had dropped from 28 to 24, but theft of vehicles had doubled from two to four. Mr Vernon said there had been no sex offences after one incident last year.

He added: "The fact that we don't have that many serious offences is really positive because it allows us time to focus on the minor offences which in the bigger cities probably do not get a lot of attention.

"These offences are not minor for the victim, I know that, but on the scale of serious crime we can focus on the more minor ones. I think it's a fairly good picture."