Chelmsford and Braintree are two of the safest areas to live in Essex.

And that is in a county which as a whole is anyway one of the safest in England - with only two having fewer house burglaries.

Latest figures reveal that both Chelmsford and Braintree police divisions have generally fewer crimes than other areas.

There are just over 79,341 households in Chelmsford and a population of 207,041 in the division which embraces the Chelmsford borough and Maldon council areas. Braintree has 71,584 households and a 185,889 population.

In the six months from from April to September last year there were 407 crimes of violence against the person in Chelmsford, 2.6 per 1,000 population and 407 in Braintree, just 2.2 per 1,000.

House burglaries at 278 in Chelmsford and 246 in Braintree, represent 3.5 and 3.4 per 1,000 households respectively, and are lower than anywhere else in other police divisions in the county.

Theft of motor vehicles is also the lowest. The Chelmsford figure was 286 and Braintree, 203 - 1.4 per 1,000 and 1.1 per 1,000 respectively.

Sex offences for the six months were also among the three lowest with 61 recorded in Chelmsford, and 50 in Braintree, both 0.3 per 1,000 population.

John Broughton, Essex Police Assistant Chief Constable (Crime) said: "At a local level, the figures for police divisions indicate that, in the main, Essex has less crime in ratio to population than most other places.

"We are not complacent and will be striving to build on this and make Essex an even safer place to live and work."

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