THOSE living in the Ilkley district will have a key role to play in cracking crime as part of a three-year strategy.

The district Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership will encourage the public to work with the new body (the police and Bradford Council are the two lead partners in an initiative which boasts 25 organisations) to tackle crime.

It follows the Bradford Crime and Disorder Audit which revealed that the use of hard drugs, such as heroin, had increased dramatically with a fifth of all crime being linked to drugs.

The strategy has been launched in direct response to the crime and disorder issues raised by residents. There are 100 target areas for action - split into seven main categories.

l Reducing youth crime and victimisation;

l Cutting drugs and drug-related crime;

l Tackling household and commercial burglaries through better crime prevention awareness and community based schemes;

l Developing effective ways to prevent domestic violence and abuse;

l Addressing the fear of crime and improving the quality of life for residents;

l Stamping out racial crime and harrassment by raising awareness and encouraging the reporting of all these types of incidents;

l Involving all communities in finding solutions to local problems.

Council leader Ian Greenwood said: "The recent audit of crime and disorder in the Bradford district identified the main problems facing our communities and underlined that many of our difficulties are a direct result of drug misuse, particularly hard drugs such as heroin."

"The targets which we have set ourselves are very challenging indeed. Our aim is to reduce significantly crime and disorder, fear of crime, racial harassment and all types of anti social behaviour in our district over the next three years and beyond," he said.

Superintendent Dave Richardson, said: "The strategy provides a tremendous opportunity for all the agencies in the partnership and the public to work more effectively together to reduce crime and anti social behaviour across the district."

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