Thames Valley Police has seen an increase in the number of crimes reported to have been committed in police stations.

In the past year, 155 crimes occurred in police stations, a rise from 128 in 2009/10 and 115 in 2008/09.

These included two sexual assaults on women aged 13 or older and one possession of a firearm.

Many crimes increased in number between 2008/09 and 2010/11, including: criminal damage (28 to 57), drug possession (29 to 49), assault occasioning actual bodily harm (seven to eight) and possession of article with blade or point (one to two).

But assault without injury on a constable decreased, from 16 in 2008/09 to 10 in 2010/11.

Most of last year’s crimes occurred in St Aldate’s police station in Oxford (72), with Abingdon (39) and Banbury (31) also seeing high figures.

Linda Dorral, divisional manager at Victim Support Thames Valley, said: “The public perception is that you are safe in a police station.

“But this shows that crime happens everywhere and that anyone can be a victim of crime.”

The number of police stations included in the figures increased between 2008/09 and 2010/11, from 10 to 12.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: “The majority of the crimes in the data supplied will be crimes where the victims are either police officers or members of custody suite staff, or damage was caused to property belonging to Thames Valley Police.

“With reference to the other offences, such as possession of drugs or firearms, these will come to light once further searches of prisoners take place once they have been transported to the custody suite.”

COUNCILS in Oxfordshire have been splashing out on bottled water with thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money. The Oxford Mail asked each council in the county how much it had spent on bottled water in the past four years.

It emerged Oxford City Council has handed £44,000 to water cooler firm Eden Springs.

The council spent £15,000 on the water in 2007 and 2008, £12,000 in each of the two following years, and £5,000 last year.

Green Oxford city councillor Nuala Young said: “That is a worry and we should be looking into it.

“It is a waste of money as well as environmentally unfriendly.

“I feel the administration could do a lot more to bring our ecological credentials up to scratch.”

Cherwell District Council has spent more than £1,000 each year on water for dispensers in council chambers where there is no water supply.

And last year Oxfordshire County Council stopped spending about £800 annually on sparkling water in meeting rooms.

West Oxfordshire District Council spent more than £12,000 on bottled water from 2007 to 2009 but cut the spending in 2010 after an efficiency review. Staff and visitors now drink tap water.

Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire district councils could not tell us how much they had spent on the water. But SODC now uses tap water and the Vale is to do the same next year.