BICYCLE thefts in Oxford have soared by more than third in the last year, with police saying cyclists are not doing enough to secure their bikes.

City police also said Oxford City Council was not providing enough racks to padlock bikes to.

In the last financial year, between April 2011 and March, there were 2,765 recorded thefts – compared with 2,023 the year before.

Sgt Matt Sulley said: “People are not locking their bikes up securely and therefore it’s a very low risk, high gain crime to commit.

“If you walk around Oxford you will see a lot of very expensive bikes locked up with very inexpensive locks.”

And he added: “While the city council is actively encouraging people to cycle we perhaps haven’t got the infrastructure in place to accommodate that.”

He also said, while robberies and burglaries had decreased, it was possible more serious criminals were turning to bike theft because it was so easy.

Last year there were 110 prosecutions for bike theft in the city.

But Sgt Sulley said: “The issue with bike theft is it is very hard to solve as there are so few lines of inquiry.”

He urged owners to lock bikes to immovable object with a tough lock, make a note of the frame numbers and register bikes at immobilise.com.

There are more than 200 cycles at St Aldate’s police station that have been seized but unclaimed. After eight weeks they are auctioned.

Pc Martin Wizard added: “We just need people to lock up their bikes and keep a log of their serial numbers.”

He added: “There are definitely not enough bike racks in the city for the upward surge in people cycling.”

Oxford University lecturer Dr Stanislav Shmelev, who had his £450 cycle stolen in May, said Oxford cyclists could never be confident their bikes would be safe.

He said: “I am not rich at all and this bike was very dear to me. Nothing is found, there is no compensation.”

Buckingham Street resident Jacqui West said she had not replaced the bicycle stolen from her front garden last August.

She said: “I do not want to run the risk of it getting stolen again.”

James Styring, of campaign group Cyclox, said: “It’s a huge problem. It costs individuals loads of money.”

Earlier this month the city council put aside £840,000 to boost the city’s cycle network over the next four years.

The spending will include new cycle lanes and better signage.

Colin Cook, city council executive board member for city development, has had five bikes stolen in his 30 years in Oxford. He said the news was “clearly disappointing”.

He said the council regularly removed abandoned bikes from racks and railings and was looking to install more racks.

But he said: “I’m not convinced that more racks is necessarily the way forward. It is a matter of better policing of these racks and the removal of these bikes.”

The figures do not include bike thefts at Oxford railway station which are dealt with by British Transport Police.