A police inspector has called for greater public support following an "horrendous" month for burglaries in Ilkley.

Ilkley section Inspector Alison Bennett said residents should not be scared of sending the police on "a wild goose chase" if they had suspicions that someone was up to no good.

She said officers would rather be called out on false alarms than miss out on preventing crime and many times members of the public were not sure whether their suspicions were worth a call to the police.

Her comments come after the number of burglaries recorded in April in the Ilkley section, which includes Menston, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Addingham, was more than treble the corresponding figures from the previous year.

"April has not been a good month but it has been a blip. We had 29 burglaries compared with eight for the same period last year," she said.

"We received a call last week from one Ilkley resident who had spotted a car that made her suspicious. Officers questioned the occupants, who, although not guilty of any crime, did have criminal records when their details were checked."

Insp Bennett said although the numbers of burglaries in the district had increased in April other crime levels had remained constant or fallen on the previous year.

Four cars s had been stolen during the month, the same as the previous year, the number of thefts from cars had fallen from 29 to 24, and the number of reported violent crimes had halved from ten to five, due to new prevention initiatives such as Pub Watch.

Insp Bennett also called for more community led-crime prevention initiatives following a meeting of Keighley and Ilkley Crime Prevention Panel.

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