NEW street-level crime mapping launched this week has revealed the worst hit areas in the town.

The website, launched by the Home Office at midnight on Monday, allows members of the public to see reported crimes broken down to a street level for the first time.

On Tuesday the site crashed as it was swamped with an estimated 18 million hits an hour, or approximately 300,000 every minute.

The stats for Swindon, recorded for the month of December, reveal the town centre to be the worst affected by criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, including violence, drugs offences and shoplifting.

Sanford Street, in particular, was revealed to have the highest crime rates of the month with 46 incidents in total including one robbery, one burglary and 33 offences such as shoplifting and criminal damage.

Other areas show up favourably on the map, with Peatmoor, Sparcells, Purton, Oakhurst and Redhouse among the places with the fewest reported incidents.

There were also some surprises with the region of Manor Park, in South Marston, accounting for 15 of the 19 incidents recorded in the whole village.

Swindon’s Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett, who in early December 2010 told the Adver police were winning the war on crime in the town centre, said the town centre figures were to be expected.

“I think you look at the map and it’s not surprising,” he said.

“The areas in and around the town centre and places where any shops, bars and clubs is where we would see criminality, some associated with the night-time economy.

“Also when you think there is a transient population and that the town centre can swell by thousands during the course of a day or night it really comes as no surprise.

“In fact what these don’t show is over the last three years the town centre is down a third on reported crimes.”

Chief Supt Howlett said while he hoped the information would boost links with the community it needed to be viewed cautiously. He said: “Anything that sparks a debate with people about crime and policing can be a good thing.

“From a police perspective we have been doing this for ages and for some time people have been able to access crime figures according to areas.

“This adds another layer of information which in overall terms is helpful but it needs to be treated with caution.

“I think there is a need for this – the police can only do so much without the support of the public.

“If they become more informed about crime and if they can work with each other and the neighbourhood policing teams then we can have an impact in terms of reducing crime.”

FEARS have been raised over inaccurate or misleading statistics on the new crime maps.

The Home Office have been blasted because of anomalies on quiet streets and the raw statistics are not put in context.

For instance Manor Park, a leafy cul-de-sac in South Marston, recorded 15 incidents last December placing it in the top 10 worst hit streets.

But resident Roy Chambers, 54, said: “It’s a surprise to me. My perception is that it is a quiet neighbourhood with a good neighbourhood watch.

“If I thought it was an area full of crime I would move.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The interests of victims has been at the heart of this work. We have taken great care to ensure that the identities of individuals are protected while giving people the information they need to challenge their police force and change their communities.

“This is why crimes are mapped to an anonymous point on, or near, the street where it happened, never to their precise location and not normally on streets with fewer than 12 postal addresses - in these cases crimes will be mapped to the next nearest location point.”