CRIME and disorder in Hyndburn cost £25million in the last year, a new study revealed today.

The audit, the first to be carried out by Hyndburn Crime and Disorder Partnership, was the product of a year's research between 2000 to now.

It is the first time there has been a figure for how much crime actually costs the borough.

The survey was carried in response to 1999 Government legislation, which set up 378 Crime and Disorder Partnerships throughout the UK, made of police officers, the NHS, local authorities and the probation service.

Leader of Hyndburn Council Peter Britcliffe described the findings as "appalling" and blamed a "cycle of poverty" in Hyndburn's poorest areas on the losses.

He said: "It seems as though we are trapped in a vicious circle. Huge amounts are spent on crime, with no money left to sort out the area's problems."

The Hyndburn audit was the first to be published in the North West and was carried by researchers working for the Government who used a special formula to link every type of crime with an associated cost. Ribble Valley results are also to be published soon.

The final figure was put at £25.2million, which works out at £800 paid by each of Hyndburn's 30,630 households.

By far the most expensive cost is violent crime estimated at £10.8million. Hyndburn NHS said violent crime alone cost it £1.2million and property crime was £4.7million.

Each partnership carries out the audits differently, making comparison between areas difficult.

In Hyndburn they looked at a number of factors including insurance pay-outs, administration and the cost of sending someone through the court system to reach their figures.

Project development officer for the audit Ian Marfleet said: "The audit shows that crime is the responsibility of lots of agencies besides the police, with associated costs of health, crime prevention to name but a few.

"We have been consulting with the community and shall be publishing a final report which will be sent to the Government.

"It's difficult to say how Hyndburn compares with other authorities because its the first year we have done this."

Police Sergeant Graham Eccles, a representative on the partnership, said the figure was a very conservative estimate: "This figure is not acceptable and we need to reduce crime and disorder and that is what the audit is all about. If crime goes down, less money will have to be spent by the NHS. We carried out the survey because we thought it would be beneficial for each agency to know how much crime was costing.

"We are still to decide on a strategy to deal with the problem but once we have done it we will be able to turn to the Government for funding. Street wardens, super-caretakers, and community wardens are all ideas that may work."

Chief executive of Hyndburn Council Mike Chambers said: "The audit is a good idea because it creates targets and helps us organise our work better. It is also good because the police are learning to pull information together so it accessible for other agencies and that is a powerful weapon against crime."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope commented: "These are very alarming figures but for the first time we have a proper estimate of the cost of crime in Hyndburn.

"We now know what the cost is and we can now discover in future whether we are winning the fight against crime.

"I shall monitor the figures very carefully so we can discover whether the cost is going up or down. I am confident that figures in future will show that we are winning the battle against crime. If not, I shall want to know why."

For more details about the crime and disorder audit, call Hyndburn First on 01254 600621.