Thames Valley Police have been set a target of reducing robbery by 16 per cent by the end of June.

Initially, the force's target up to the end of September was to stop robbery and street crime increasing, after being faced with a 35 per cent increase earlier in the year.

The force managed to exceed its target with a three per cent reduction.

The Home Office suggested a target of a 16 per cent robbery reduction by March 31 for Thames Valley, but Chief Constable Peter Neyroud and the Thames Valley Police Authority felt this might be too ambitious.

"It could begin to look like an exercise in Houdini-like escapology if we're not careful," he said.

The police say robbery has continued to fall and is now 10 per cent lower than this time last year across the force's three counties.

The police authority and Mr Neyroud have agreed that tackling robbery must continue to be a priority.

The authority has decided officers should strive to achieve a 16 per cent reduction by June 30.

Mr Neyroud said fears that clamping down so hard on one category of crime would lead to offenders turning to other crimes had proved unfounded.

He added: "We're not just seeing falls in robbery, we are seeing falls in vehicle crime as well as burglary.

"A number of people we've been intervening with have also been responsible for other types of offences."

Mr Neyroud said there had been a "palpable change of approach" from central Government.

He said: "We've never had this level of co-operation between the criminal justice agencies to tackle a particular problem."