Ashby councillors are to raise the latest town centre crime figures with North West Leicestershire's new Neighbourhood Policing Area Commander Inspector Rich Muldoon.

Incidents of crime in town are concerning the council and Monday's night's licensing committee called for greater clarity about the type of offences that have been committed.

Councillors were told that 23 offences were recorded during May, 26 in June and 21 in July.

They covered a wide range of crimes, and the latter two months included the Euro 2020 football tournament with matches being shown in town pubs.

But the committee was not happy with some being categorised by police under 'Violence & sexual offences'.

Councillors were told that sexual offences were rate and Cllr David Bigby made it clear that all violent crime was placed under this section.

But Cllrs Dan Harrison and Mary Tuckey called for a more detailed report to be made in future so that it can be see exactly what offences had taken place.

Cllr Harrison said: "When you break it down, it's 31 violent and sexual offences in 12 weeks and I'm concerned

"It looks really bad and I think we should be talking to the new North West Leicestershire Policing Area Commander and invite him in.

"We're living in a really nice town, but when you look at some of the figures you sit back and think 'My God, what's going on?

"Goodness knows what the next figures will say.

"I just think this is really unacceptable.

"As town councillors, it falls on us to make comment and talk to the police - we need assurance don't we?"

New commander joins police team serving Ashby.

Cllr Geraint Jones added: "I think we need to know the times of day these crimes were committed."

Cllr Bigby said: "These offences are bundled into the same category, but we should be concerned as we have no idea how serious they are. It'd be much better if we knew."

Cllr Rita Manning added: "We need a better breakdown, this just doesn't tell us anything.

"In Bath Street, there aren't the pubs you have in Market Street, so why is it going down there?"

Cllr Tuckey added: "We need to have our eyes on safety in the town.

'We have a night time economy with young girls coming into Ashby.

"There needs to be come degree of assured safety.

"We should take seriously, let's find out what's going on from a serving policeman.

"But we don't want Ashby to acquire a reputation for violent and sexual incidents."

Cllr John Coxon added: "These figures are very wooly and I've thought that for quite some time.

"The figures should be more detailed and we need better classification."

Cllr Graham Allman said that the increased population of the town could be having an effect on the figures.

He said: "We should look at the demographics in the town, there are people coming in from big cities to enjoy our beautiful town.

"The police need to tell us what they intend to do about it."