Residents in part of Oxford have welcomed an overall drop in crime - despite an increase in robbery and criminal damage.

New figures show crime has fallen in the north east area of the city, which includes Barton, Headington, Wood Farm and Risinghurst.

The statistics, which compare the last three months of 2007 to the same period in 2006, show house burglaries dropped 43 per cent, vehicle crime was down 24 per cent and theft from a person was down 38 per cent.

But violent crime was up four per cent - from 113 recorded incidents in 2006, to 118 in 2007.

There were eight muggings, compared to six, and wounding was up 4.2 per cent, from 48 to 50 incidents.

Criminal damage was up 14 per cent - from 126 to 144 incidents - and there were six incidents of arson, compared to four.

Insp Ned Qureshioksaid: "We are very pleased about the drop in burglary and auto crime - that is the result of doing a lot of work with the neighbourhood teams, putting on special operations.

"In relation to the increase in violent crime, there has been a general increase mainly because of the way we are recording. The robbery part of it, we are quite concerned there has been an unacceptable increase, but we are trying to address that with our priority crimes team."

He said criminal damage was actually down when measured across a wider period of time.

Sue Holden, secretary of Barton Community Association, said residents felt much safer now than in recent years.

She added: "Any drop in crime has got to be good."

City councillor Patrick Murray, who represents Barton and Sandhills, said: "When I first became a councillor there was one full-time police officer and one part-time in Barton.

"Now we have a police office and a whole team of officers, street wardens and police community support officers. There is so much more presence."