VIOLENCE in Waltham Forest is at its highest point for more than 12 years.

New crime figures released yesterday (October 20) by the Office for National Statistics have shown a significant rise in violence in the borough.

The latest figure showing the recorded incidents of violence without injury over the last 12 months, was 3,721, when there were 1956 incidents in March, 2008.

This reveals a 90 per cent rise in violence without injury over the last eight years.

The latest figure for violence with injury is 2,446, when there were 2,008 recorded incidents at the same point in 2012.

This shows a 22 per cent rise in violence with injury over the last four years.

While violence seems to be on the rise, robbery and domestic burglary are significantly decreasing.

The last figure for recorded robberies was 597, while it was 1791 when the national standard for logging criminal offences was rolled out 14 years ago.

This reveals a 200 per cent decrease in recorded robberies in the borough.

In the same time, domestic burglaries has dropped from 2,559 in March 2003, to 1,426 in June 2016.

This shows Waltham Forest has experienced a 79 per cent decrease in domestic burglaries over the last 14 years.