Robberies in East Lothian fell by nearly 48 per cent over the last year, police have said.

The latest performance report for the county saw serious assaults fall by nearly 20 per cent with detection rates at 97 per cent while robberies fell by almost half.

However there was an 11 per cent rise in the number of reported rapes with only one in four solved to date.

Police said the low solvency rate for the sex crimes could be attributed to ongoing long term investigations into historic reports of rape or attempted rape.

House-breaking was also up in the year from April 2019 to March 2020 by nearly 14 per cent.

Chief Inspector Neil Mitchell, Local Area Commander for East Lothian, said: "While It is welcoming to see a significant drop in violent crimes across the county, such as serious assault and robberies there is a lot of work still to be done as there are still too many victims of these violent crimes.

“We will continue to support victims and witnesses, whilst focussing our efforts towards our main priorities of reducing violence and disorder and targeting perpetrators of these violent crimes.

"Across the year there has been a rise in reported rapes.  This can be attributed to ongoing long term investigations into non-recent reports of rape and attempted rape and national teams are working closely with local teams to identify further victims and perpetrators.

"I believe this rise highlights that there is increased confidence from victims to report these crimes and campaigns and movements such as ‘me too’ have assisted with this.

“Many of these cases cannot be progressed if victims and witnesses don’t come forward and I urge anyone who has been the victim of a sexual crime, either recent or historic to report this to us or a third party service.

"Domestic abuse will always be a priority, not just in East Lothian but across all Police Scotland divisions and I will continue to work collaboratively with all our partners to provide the best service and support to victims.  If you are a victim of domestic abuse or know someone who is please contact us so that we can stop this from happening.”

Meanwhile  a rise in complaints about noisy neighbours has become the new issue for anti social behaviour teams in East Lothian.

East Lothian Council says its teams have seen a huge fall in youth-related complaints since lockdown came into force on March 23.

However it said the number of complaints about loud music and domestic noise had increased over the same period.

A spokesperson for the council said when people were confronted about noise issues they were 'very understanding".

They said: "The majority of those complaints relate to loud music and normal household living noise, with the increase attributable to the fact that more people are now staying at home.

"When council officers have responded to these complaints and visited - most people have been very understanding and immediately reduced excessive noise."

Chief Inspector Mitchell said: "Looking ahead to the rest of 2020 and 2021, there is lots of work still to be done.

"Despite Covid-19 and the challenges this brings to all of society, we will continue to provide the best possible service to the public and to ensure that East Lothian continues to be a safe place to live, work and visit."

The domestic abuse helpline can be contacted in n confidence on 0800 027 1234.