AN AWARD winning project has been praised for helping to cut crime in a community.

Youth Works Sudellside, at Darwen, has become one of the top two entries in the British Community Safety Awards, backed by Norwich Union and Crime Concern.

Lancashire Police chief constable Pauline Clare accompanied project manager Gwilym Hall and youth worker Tracy Scott to receive the award from Princess Royal in London yesterday.

The scheme will now go forward to the European Crime Prevention Awards to be held in Brussels in November.

It team is based in Anyon Street and the project managed by Groundwork Blackburn and also forms part of the multi-agency Crime and Disorder Strategy.

During the past three years the work is said to have contributed to a fall in crime of more than 33 per cent, a 50 per cent drop in household burglaries and has also helped slash juvenile nuisance by 12 per cent.

Coun Bill Taylor, who represents Blackburn with Darwen Council within the Crime and Disorder Partnership, said: "The partnership approach as encouraged by Jack Straw's Crime and Disorder Act has once again been effective and successful in promoting safer communities."

Councillor Eileen Entwistle, ward member for Sudell, added: "I would like to congratulate everyone involved from the Youth Works team, Sudellside Community and Tenants Associations, the various borough council service teams, Lancashire Constabulary, Community Voluntary Services and local volunteers. It shows partnership working at its best."