Home Secretary Jack Straw has praised once notorious Ravenscliffe estate after the figures released today showed a massive drop in crime.

A police chief also revealed the force now had to set time aside to study mountains of information given by residents who were no longer afraid of reprisals.

Mr Straw, who visited the estate in January at the invitation of mother-of-five Adele Murphy, told the Telegraph & Argus: "This is very good news.

"It shows what can be done when the police and community work together to tackle crime and disorder.

"This is exactly the type of success from a partnership approach which we are trying to encourage across the country."

The estate, which used to be tagged as one of the worst in Bradford, has now been described as a model development by police after bobbies went on the beat in its troubled streets.

At this time last year burglaries were running at a rate of between 50 and 60 a month on Ravenscliffe Estate.

But police figures published last July showed there had been a dramatic drop to just two burglaries during the month.

Mr Straw said at the time of his visit that he believed a few bad neighbours were causing many of the problems. Now multi-agency partnership - including the police - is working with families to make great strides in Ravenscliffe.

But today residents had mixed reactions to the glowing reports.

Some had high praise for the police and partnership and said the estate was a far better place to live. But others said they still suffered break-ins and problems and there was still a long way to go.

Supt David Collins, of Eccles-hill Police, said the drop in burglaries was not purely down to the beat bobbies. A large number of initiatives were going on to revitalise the estate.

While violence was increasing across the district, it had stabilised on the estate. They had also arrested more than 30 serious drug dealers in the division and life was continuing to improve on Ravenscliffe.

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