THE performance of the local police force has rated very highly in a survey of people who have used the service over the last 12 months.

The results have been received as a "massive vote of confidence" in Lancashire Constabulary, with 92 per cent of people who have experienced policing services saying they were "satisfied" with the service they received.

The figure emerged from a widespread survey of accident and crime victims across the county. Act Dep Chief Constable David Smith said: "It is extremely gratifying to know that the public are largely satisfied with our work. The force's year end performance figures cover a range of objectives and while the Constabulary has performed extremely well in some of them, there is room for improvement in others."

One such area is crime reduction, the Constabulary pushing down the number of reported crimes by 2.7 per cent compared with a target of five per cent.

Mr Smith added: "Road safety is one of our core objectives and during the year we have been involved in a number of initiatives aimed at making our roads safer for everyone to use.

"One target that was met involved road safety where the new statistics show the number of road casualties have been reduced by 8.5 per cent, exceeding the demanding five per cent target that had been set. This achievement must be considered in the light of major changes in the Constabulary that have just gone through.

"It seems the new divisions are settling down and there had been a very real commitment by the force as a whole to meet the demanding targets we set."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.