CAERPHILLY county borough is becoming a safer place to live, work, and visit, say council officials.

A total of 6407 crimes were committed between April 2003 and April 2004. But over the same period in 2007, the number of reported crimes fell by 21.9 percent to 5001.

Officials are thanking the Safer Caerphilly County Borough Community Safety Partnership for this drop in crime rate.

The partnership was launched in 2005, and brings representatives from Caerphilly council, Gwent police and other agencies together to discuss crime issues in the borough.

The partnership originally intended to bring crime rates down by 18 percent by March 2008, but the new figures show the drop in crime rates has already far exceeded this target. Hopes are high to exceed the target by an even greater margin.

Alun Thomas, Chair of Safer Caerphilly County Borough Community Safety Partnership, said: "As a partnership we are determined to keep pushing crime and disorder down.

"By doing this, and by prioritising the issues the community identifies are important to them, we are making Caerphilly County Borough safer."

Cabinet member of the Environment, Councillor David Poole, added: "This is extremely encouraging news and clearly highlights the positive outcomes of our partnership working with the police and other local agencies.

"The partnership should be incredibly proud of its achievements we will continue to work together to reduce overall levels of crime in the county borough."