A BLUEPRINT outlining how York's crime-fighting alliance aims to tackle issues in the city over the next three years has been unveiled today.

Safer York Partnership's Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy is a detailed document designed to unify the work of the many agencies, including the police and City of York Council, which make up the partnership.

The strategy, which goes before the council's shadow executive next week in its draft form, is based on the partnership's latest two-year crime audit, which uses information from a range of sources, including residents, to give the fullest picture of crime and disorder in the city.

Jane Brown, the partnership's director, said: "There has been a lot of success already and by becoming more focused on the key areas I think we are laying the foundation for all the activity in the city to have a greater effect."

The audit shows crime levels mostly falling over the two years, but the figures for the six months from April 2001 show an increase in crime.

The partnership is also keen to highlight how the figures show that much of the fear of crime can be unfounded.

Between 1997/98 and 2000/01 the rate of domestic burglary in York was cut by 40 per cent.

The elderly are often some of the most fearful of crime, but the figures show only 14.5 per cent of burglary victims were aged over 65 and just 3.1 per cent of victims of violent crime were aged over 55.

Updated: 11:24 Thursday, February 14, 2002