West Yorkshire Police today insisted street crime was falling as it was reported that the force will fail to meet a Government deadline to cut mugging rates by the end of September.

Prime Minister Tony Blair had pledged to ensure the number of street crimes between April and September did not exceed the recorded figure for the same period last year. But reports today claimed West Yorkshire Police has suffered a 30 per cent rise compared with the figures for 2001 despite a move by forces to divert officers from other duties in a bid to achieve the September deadline.

Today a spokesman for West Yorkshire Police, which was one of 10 forces involved in the Govern-ment's street crime initiative, denied that street crime was on the increase.

He said: "In March this year we were averaging 150 recorded robberies per week and by August so far we have recorded about 70 per week. That figure is the lowest in the last 12 months."

But Chief Superintendent Rick Naylor, vice-president of the Police Superinten-dents' Association of England and Wales, today said that although there were clear signs of progress, certain forces might not hit Mr Blair's end-of-September deadline.

"It seems that some forces may not actually get there. We need to wait for the official statistics from the Home Office to see if those forces have not managed to reach the target and by how much," he said.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The pledge is to bring street crime down by the end of September, and we are on the way with that. We are not going to offer running commentaries on whether or not we are on target, before the figures are due to be published."