VIOLENT crime has seen a greater drop in York than nationally since new licensing hours were introduced.

Violent crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales fell by 11 per cent at the end of last year, despite longer pub opening hours, according to new figures.

The Home Office figures for the last three months of 2005, which include a six-week period when the police were given £2.5m to target alcohol-related crime, show an 11 per cent drop compared with the same period in 2004.

But as the Evening Press revealed last month, violent crime in York dropped by 20 per cent between November 24, when later opening hours began, and December 31.

There were 359 incidents of violent crime in York in that period compared with 451 incidents in the city during the same five-week period the previous year.

Chief Inspector Andy Hirst welcomed the news, but said it would take longer to assess the full impact of the changes.

He said: "I'm pleased to hear that the figures for violent incidents have gone down by 11 per cent nationally, and I'm even more pleased that in York we've done even better than that, and reduced it by 20 per cent.

"Hopefully the work we are doing with the council and our other partner agencies means that trend will continue."

It was widely speculated that later drinking hours under the new licensing laws would bring mayhem to the streets.

Insp Hirst added: "We were concerned about what impact that was going to have on alcohol-related violence and disorder, specifically in York city centre.

"It was an unknown quantity because there has been a lot of talk about the effects of 24-hour drinking, and while we never thought that was going to happen in York, we were concerned that the main times for policing disorder and violence were going to shift to early in the morning. So far that doesn't seem to have happened."

However, the figures for violent crime in Humberside showed an increase of 0.9 per cent between October and December, up to 6,206 from 6,151 in the same period the previous year.

But there was a drop of 7.9 per cent between April and January.

A spokeswoman said: "We consider it too early to measure any impact of the changes to the Licensing Act.

"The October to December figures are a very small snapshot on which it is difficult to decipher any clear violent crime trends.

"We must wait until the end of the year and at least until after the busy summer months before we can consider any impact, whether positive or negative."

Half of all violent crime is linked to excessive drinking, and the Government had been waiting to see how the figures would be affected by longer opening hours.

Updated: 09:45 Thursday, February 09, 2006