ROBBERIES of businesses are on the up amid claims owners don’t feel enough is being done by police.

End of year figures released by Lancashire Constabulary showed that all robbery across the force is up by 2.5 per cent from 2009-10 to 2010-11.

The statistic represents 17 more offences, but with personal robbery falling by 25 fewer incidents, the rise is due to an increase of 42 business robberies.

At a meeting of the Lancashire Police Authority, independent member and Blackburn businessman Ibby Master said he didn’t think companies had enough protection from crime.

He asked the Chief Constable Steve Finnigan: “What kind of support are you giving businesses?”

Mr Finnigan responded: “Generally we see a big increase around Christmas and we run Operation Vault and have regular consultations with businesses.

“I don’t think businesses have the view that we care about them as much as people.

“But we are asking ourselves – what is the problem profile going to tell us about the nature of these crimes?”

The majority of other crime categories also fell year on year. All crime was down 4.5 per cent for 2010-11, compared to 2009-2010, as did serious and acquisitive crime by 5.1 per cent, house burglary by 1.6 per cent, vehicle crime by 7.6 per cent, assault with less serious injury by 5.4 per cent and criminal damage including arson by 17.6 per cent.

Violent crime decreased by 0.6 per cent, which represents 158 fewer crimes, but Mr Finnigan acknowledged that within that fall, there had been an increase in serious violent crime which gave the force ‘some challenges’.

Lancashire currently sits seventh out of its eight most similar forces for having a high number of violent crimes, compared to being the lowest for most other categories.