Steeton and Eastburn are suffering from a spate of crime and the situation has never been as bad, according to parish councillors.

The comments came at the parish council meeting on Wednesday after thefts and other incidents of petty crime in the villages.

In recent weeks in Eastburn the newsagent's and sub post office have both been targeted and vandals have smashed the bowling club window for the fourth time.

Local shopkeepers have called for more police in the area, and this is backed by councillors.

"People are being broken into right, left and centre - there is a spate of it in the villages," said vice chairman Margaret Moorhouse.

She continued: "We have more crime now than we have ever had, whatever the police say about crime figures dropping.

"If they are not careful then people are going to start taking the law into their own hands, and it is them that will be prosecuted."

Councillor John Hargreaves added: "It is vital that we have more police in the town. This needs to be controlled."

At the annual meeting of Steeton with Eastburn Parish Council, chairman David Emmott said: "We need a more visible police presence in Steeton and Eastburn. It acts as a deterrent.

"But unless people report the crimes then the statistics won't reflect how bad the problem is.

"I think people feel nowadays that there's no point in reporting these crimes because the police don't seem to be able to do anything about it, but we must try to report them all.

"That way, the number of reported crimes reflects what's actually happening here and they can look at getting us more police presence."

"When young kids hang around in gangs it can be very intimidating. We appreciate the work that the POP team does, but it just doesn't seem to be as effective as having someone nearby who can get here quickly."