More than 1,000 crimes were committed in Sidmouth and Seaton in 12 months.

Speaking at one of the latest town council meetings, Sergeant Andy Squires said there had been 1,097 recorded crimes in the area in the 12 months up to March 2018.

Across Devon and Cornwall, the number of crimes recorded for the same 12 months stood at 110,378.

This equates to 55.6 crimes, per 1,000 head of population for the force and 34.3 crimes per 1,000 head of population in Sidmouth.

In total, 259,999 incidents were recorded force-wide in the 12 months up to March 2018 – 2,794 of these were from Sidmouth and Seaton.

When asked whether people had confidence in the police in their area, 81.3 per cent agreed.

Devon and Cornwall was ranked best of all 42 police forces for fear/risk of crimes per household, 19th for personal fear/risk of crime (excluding computer misuse and fraud) and 18th for personal fear/risk (including computer misuse and fraud).

Sgt Squires also spoke to about the ‘Genius Project’, a scheme that aims to help shape the future of neighbourhood policing.