ANGRY county councillor Dennis Green has launched a scathing attack on police chiefs accusing them of hiding the extent of crime in Princes Risborough.

Cllr Green (Princes Risborough, Con), a former special constable, believes crime in the area has now reached an intolerably high level.

He wants to meet Thames Valley Police chiefs to thrash out a new crime-beating strategy for the area.

He said: "I feel very desperately about this terrible situation. I am very unhappy with the way the police are dealing with this now.

"I'm not blaming the police in Princes Risborough, I'm blaming those at headquarters. I'm so incensed I want to get round the table and sort this out."

Cllr Green, who lives in Monks Risborough, is most worried about house break-ins, opportunistic thefts and vandalism.

He refuses to accept Princes Risborough is a quiet and relatively crime free town a view he believes the police try to encourage.

Cllr Green believes separate crimes are lumped together as one incident if they are believed to be connected or happened within a short time of each other.

He said: "The police come out with massaged figures they're like a bikini in that they cover all the most important points.

"But Risborough has got a problem, with vandalism, burglaries and thefts. Ask the residents and shop keepers if it's a quiet town. It's down to a lack of policing in the town and everywhere else for that matter.

"Somebody in uniform is a deterrent against opportunistic crime. People always comment how nice it was to see officers walking around the town."

Superintendent Rob Beckley, area commander of Chiltern Vale police, said there had been 132 less incidents of reported crime in Princes Risborough and the surrounding parishes this year. This year's total number of reported crimes is 427.

He added: "Crimes are not lumped together, in fact the opposite has happened. If someone uses a stolen cheque book, each time a separate cheque is used it is recorded as a separate crime.

"We don't lump crimes together. Princes Risborough crime has fallen this year."