If enough attention is focused on one particular area of criminal activity, the effort is not wasted. That has been proved in recent years in those parts of Bradford where the police have raised the profile of their activities. As a result, crime levels have fallen.

And now the same principle has been applied to good effect to the depressingly high level of arson attacks on cars. Latest figures from the Vehicle Crime Partnership - launched last November by West Yorkshire Police, Fire Service and Bradford Council - show a 61 per cent drop in the number of cars stolen and burned out in the last three months compared with the same period before the launch of the initiative.

There was certainly plenty of room for improvement. In 1998 there were 873 vehicles involved in fires in the Bradford area. Some of those will have been stolen out of sheer malicious "fun" while others will have been deliberately torched by, or on behalf of, people wanting either to defraud an insurance company or dispose of a vehicle which had badly failed its MoT.

Whatever the reasons, though, their theft can cause a lot of distress and inconvenience to their owners, their charred remains create an unsightly mess, and clearing them away is a costly business. The crime prevention advice provided to motorists under the initiative, plus the promotion of safe ways to dispose of unwanted vehicles, appears to be having a significant impact. With greater help from the public, ringing Crimestoppers when they see something suspicious, this initiative could achieve even more.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.