POLICE have moved to reassure residents that levels of violence in North Oxford are not as disturbing as new figures suggest.

Local councillors expressed alarm when latest police statistics showed the number of violent crimes in Oxford's most affluent suburb rose by 46.6 per cent over the last six months, compared to the same period last year.

The former Lord Mayor and North Oxford city councillor Jim Campbell contacted police to seek an explanation of figures showing 107 violent crimes committed in North Oxford between April and September. During the same period last year there were 73 similar crimes.

Mr Campbell said the police were insistent that the crime figures did not mean North Oxford was becoming a more dangerous place to live.

He said he had been reassured by a breakdown of police figures revealing that the total number of robberies between April and September 2007 was 11 compared with seven in the similar six months last year.

In the same period there were eight more cases of assault causing bodily harm or grievous bodily harm than in 2006 (37, up from 29).