Basildon's most dangerous neighbourhoods have been revealed in new crime statistics with one area having almost three times more than the town's average.

Statistics from crimerate.co.uk found that 15,431 crimes were reported in the town in 2022, with an overall crime rate of 131 crimes per 1,000 people.

According to the website, this is a whopping 77 per cent higher than the regional crime rate and 57 per cent higher than the Essex rate of 83 per 1,000 residents.

Basildon Central and Pipps Hill is the most dangerous neighbourhood in Basildon, followed by Chalvedon in second place, and Barstable as the third most dangerous area.

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Basildon Central and Pipps Hill was found to have a crime rate of 346 crimes per 1,000 people, almost three times higher than the town's average, with 3,376 offences in 2022.

Chalvedon saw 1,394 offences reported last year, with a crime rate of 169 while Barstable saw 1,288 crimes with a crime rate of 147.

Basildon's safest neighbourhoods are, in order, Laindon East and Lee Chapel North, Laindon West and Southfields, and Langdon Hills.

In November 2022, Basildon had the worst crime rate in Essex for drugs, with 70 crimes reported and a crime rate of 0.59 per 1,000 inhabitants. The town also recorded 20 reports of possession of weapons during November, making its crime rate of 0.17 the worst for possession of weapons in Essex that month.

The most common crimes in Basildon are violence and sexual offences, with 7,469 offences during 2022, giving a crime rate of 63.

However, this is 2 per cent lower than 2021's figure of 7,619 offences and a difference of 1.27 from 2021's crime rate of 65.

The figures for 2022 were the highest since 2016. However, a breakdown of crime trends found reports of anti-social behaviour, burglary, criminal damage and arson, theft from the person, shoplifting, other theft and vehicle crime have all dropped since 2019.