Police in Sudbury are launching a number of initiatives in a bid to help the town’s crime rate continue to fall.

According to recent figures, although the crime rate in the Babergh district is up 3% on this time last year, the rate in Sudbury has dropped by 6%, with 98 offences recorded in January compared to 127 during the same period last year.

Local police officers believe this is largely down to a proactive safer neighbourhoods team and a string of projects targeting specific problem areas.

At a Sudbury Town Council meeting this week, inspector Paul Crick told councillors the Babergh area had seen a number of burglaries to outbuildings such as garden sheds, as well as a spate of catalytic converter thefts from saloon cars.

Initially thieves targeted vans and four-wheel-drives, but there has been a noticeable shift. A growing area of concern in Sudbury is theft from shops.

Sergeant Steve Tully, who recently began heading up the local policing team for Sudbury and Great Cornard, said: “We are doing some bespoke work around the problem of theft from shops because it’s an emerging issue we felt we needed to tackle.

“We have been working with retailers in the town on this and we have already managed to make one arrest.”

Inspector Crick said the force was also looking to set up a police cadets unit in Sudbury in the near future.

The cadets scheme has proved successful in towns such as Ipswich, and Sudbury will be one of the first smaller rural areas to form its own unit.

The cadets scheme, which provides a number of activities, will be open to youngsters from all walks of life.

St Edmundsbury Borough Council recently signed up for the “Reducing the Strength” campaign to stop supermarkets and off-licences selling low priced lagers, beers and ciders with an alcohol volume of 6.5% or greater.

The initiative launched in Ipswich 18 months ago and is being rolled out to towns in west Suffolk. Sudbury was one of the first towns outside Ipswich to push for the scheme.

Inspector Crick said he was confident the campaign would be introduced in Sudbury and the outlying village by this summer.