The people of County Fermanagh have told members of the Fermanagh District Policing Partnership in no uncertain terms what, in their view, Police officers should be doing to make the county a safer place.

This week, the Partnership handed over a copy of its public consultation exercise to the local PSNI District Commander for possible inclusion in the Local Policing Plan for the year, April, 2009 to March, 2010.

The Report features the 'usual suspects' that trouble the public, road traffic collisions, anti-social behaviour, violent crime and drugs abuse.

The Report asserts that Fermanagh continues to be 'one of the safest places in Northern Ireland to live in' but, somewhat surprisingly, between April last year and March this year, there were 100 extra crimes, representing the largest increase of any of the 26 District Council areas.

As against that, Fermanagh is ranked in 20th place, recording just over 50 crimes per 1,000 head of population compared, say, to Belfast (125 per 1,000).

Traditionally, Fermanagh has always enjoyed a low level of violent crime, ie crime against the person, sexual offences and robbery. In the year ending last March, the county had the 7th lowest level of violent crime in Northern Ireland, although the figure of 901 actual crimes might shock people. .

But, the statistics do fluctuate. For instance, overall, the incidence of violent crime was slightly up on the previous year, by 2.9 per cent and 'property crime', ie burglary, theft and criminal damage by 1 per cent.

However, taking all varieties of crime together, Fermanagh was way down in 15th place in the league table for the 26 District Councils, with just over 32 crimes per 1,000 people compared to Belfast which recorded almost 80 crimes per 1,000 of the population.

So, having taken on board the input from a range of sources, ranging from the Lithunanian community to residents in Coleshill/Windmill Heights in Enniskillen's West Side, the survey placed the need for greater PSNI attention to preventing road accident casualties as number one on their wish list.

The positive note struck here is that, from April last year to March this year, there were 7 road deaths compared to 16 the previous year.

The Report notes that the number of road traffic collisions rose from 196 to 228 and the number of casualties also rose, from 348 to 394 over the two years.

As to the causes of those accidents, the Report lists drivers travelling too fast for the prevailing conditions, inattention, alcohol and emerging from a minor on to a major road.