ALMOST half of West Devon residents worry about becoming the victim of anti-social behaviour or a specific crime, a new survey reveals.

The figure of 48.9% represents a fall of 3.1% on a similar poll carried out two years ago.

The Home Office-funded crime survey shows more than a third of people (36.3%) worry about family or friends being targeted by crime - a rise of 4.1% on the 2001 figure of 32.2%.

The latest crime survey comes less than a year after Home Office figures showed West Devon was the second safest place to live in England and Wales.

Out of more than 1,000 West Devon residents who took part in the survey, 3% feel ?fairly? or ?very unsafe? during the day, while outdoors in the borough, rising to 18.2% after dark.

Tavistock and Okehampton are consistently identified as the two main areas of concern, closely followed by Bere Alston.

Concerns about burglary fell by 6.5%, with fears over robbery rising by 3.8%.

The findings of the survey, which involved sending out more than 3,000 questionnaires to random West Devon households, have been presented to the area?s Community Safety Partnership.

The results provide new data on how people perceive the role of the police, their experiences and fears of crime, and crime prevention measures.

Of the 17% of respondents who said they or a member of their household had been the victim of crime, only 71% had reported it.

Cllr Gretta Madigan, chairman of the Community Safety Partnership, said this was the most alarming statistic to come out of the survey.

?Overall I am encouraged that there is a good level of confidence in the police, and that there has been a reduction in the fear and worry of crime, which is more consistent with the actual experience of it in our locality,? she said.

?However, the reduction in reporting of crime to the police gives me cause for concern and we will need to look at that with a view to improving reporting behaviour.?

Just over 82% of respondents thought the performance of police was ?fairly good? or ?very good?.

Males aged 16-18, and those who had recently been a victim of crime tended to give lower ratings for the police.

The poll, carried out in February, indicated a dramatic 8% fall in the number of people reporting crimes to the police since 2001.

As well as residents, students at the borough?s three senior schools - Tavistock College, Okehampton College and Kelly College- completed a further 122 questionnaires.

West Devon Community Safety Partnership, whose leading members are West Devon Borough Council, Devon County Council, the Police and Fire Authorities, will now be considering the detailed analysis and results of the survey.

The last crime survey, carried out in 2001, formed the basis of the current West Devon Community Safety Strategy 20002/05.