A ROW has erupted between Burnley’s most senior policeman and a mother-of-two after she lashed the town’s record on burglaries in this week’s live TV General Election debate.

Optician Jacqueline Salmon said in front of a 10 million TV audience that her 100-year-old grandmother had been repeatedly burgled.

She insisted more should be done to tackle housebreakers during the country’s first ever televised clash between the three party leaders.

Chief Supt Clive Tattum said her attack was a “kick in the teeth” for crimefighters who had worked hard to lower Burnley’s burglary rates.

He said break-in rates for homes and outbuildings had dropped by around a quarter, just weeks after Burnley was dubbed the ‘burglary capital of the UK’.

And he revealed lastest figures showed there had been 115 less house burglary victims across the town when comparing the last two years figures.

Police chiefs and community safety workers in Burnley were dismayed when the tag, reported by the Lancashire Telegraph in February, emerged during ITV’s election summit, featuring Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

But yesterday Mrs Salmon, of Leamington Avenue, stuck to her guns.

She said: “You can’t get away from the figures and the facts.

“On my grandmother’s 100th birthday, she was too scared to put anything in the paper because people would know she was old and alone.

“On one occasion, a burglar went into her room while she slept and took her purse.”

Mrs Salmon, 42, had raised the issue during the debate after claiming her grandmother was burgled three times in six years and her 73-year-old father had his car torched.

She said on the programme: “There’s not enough police on the beat. If you want a policeman in our area you don't ring 999, you drive down the motorway where you find officers sat in a car eating a doughnut.”

In February the Lancashire Telegraph reported Home Office figures showing there had been 2,154 burglaries, including home and outbuilding break-ins, from 2008 to 2009.

This gave a rate of 24.6 per 1,000 people, the worst in the country, behind major cities like Manchester and Nottingham.

But Mr Tattum, in charge of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale’s policing, said the majority of break-ins referred to in the Home Office report related to shed and garage raids, rather than home burglaries.

He said this year there had been less than 600 victims of domestic break-ins, a drop of 115 on the previous 12 months.

There had also been around a third less garage and shed attacks, down from 1,500 to just over 1,000.

Mr Tattum said: “The figures quoted were misleading as they include non-domestic burglaries like sheds and garages.

“The majority of burglaries are not committed in people’s homes and Burnley has never been near the top for its levels of domestic burglary.

“Our own figures show that burglary in people’s homes has fallen by more than 40 per cent over the last few years and we are doing a huge amount of work along with the community safety partnership to try and reduce the numbers still further.”

Police have also said that the number of frontline officers in Lancashire, including police officers and community support colleagues, has increased by 650 countywide.

Yesterday Mrs Salmon said: “My grandmother lives in sheltered accomodation near Turf Moor and she’s scared at night because if she calls the police it may take them an hour to get there.

“There’s not enough police on the streets and though all the leaders agree with that, what will we see?

"Nothing changes, and too much money is spent on police admin and red tape.

“My father, Arthur Hollis, had his garage broken into near Wiltshire Close and his car was torched when he was visiting my grandmother four years ago.

“The chief superintedent says its more sheds than houses getting burgled as if that’s okay. It’s not okay, we need more police because we are not safe in Burnley.”

Gordon Birtwistle, Burnley Council leader, said he was unhappy with Mrs Salmon’s comments.

“The police and the council are working extremely hard and comments like this set us back years,” said Mr Birtwistle.

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