Is West Yorkshire really the most dangerous place to live in England and Wales?

Yes, according to The Sun newspaper which ran a story earlier this week which named our county as the worst for overall crime, violent crime and theft.

Thankfully West Yorkshire isn’t the worst for robbery (London is), nor it is the worst for criminal damage or arson (Cleveland is top).

When it comes to rates of sexual offences, West Yorkshire is not as bad as North Wales, Cleveland and Staffordshire. But we are in fourth place.

The Sun story, based on Home Office statistics, has West Yorkshire as the place where you are most likely to be attacked, followed by Hampshire, Kent, Staffordshire and Cleveland.

West Yorkshire Police say the figures are correct but they don’t tell the whole story.

And Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman said crime in big cities such as Bradford and Leeds accounted for a lot of the incidents being reported.

A police spokesman said: “We do sit highest in terms of crimes per 1,000 population, but we are not that dissimilar from other Metropolitan Forces, who face the same complex and diverse challenges that we do.

“We have invested substantial time in the last 18 months ensuring our crime recording figures are accurate and although data show that for 2016/17, of the 17.8% increase in crime, 5% was genuine risk, the rest being a result of stricter crime recording.

“Not only is recorded crime up, but so is the demand placed on West Yorkshire Police. In the last 12 months, we have seen an increase of around 5% in calls for service from the public.

“We also cannot ignore the impact of police cuts, which has seen us lose more than 1,000 police officer posts in the ten years between 2006 and 2016.

“Much of this demand relates to missing people, vulnerable members of the community and those suffering from mental health issues, which is putting significant pressure on ourselves and partner agencies.”

Police said they were also dealing with new and complex crimes like cybercrime and resource intensive issues “such as the ever present terror threat.”

In January it was revealed that violent crime reported to police in Kirklees had risen 33% in just 12 months. Police said that changes to the way figures are recorded was having an impact on the figures. However the Force accepted that overall crime had risen.

Barry Sheerman said that “by and large” recorded crime in Britain was down, although senior officers in Kirklees are concerned about knife crime.

Mr Sheerman said Kirklees didn’t have the kind of problems facing parts of London and Manchester.