Police say there are more officers on Holyhead's streets

Deputy mayor Jeff Evans says the Anglesey town is "under siege" from petty criminals and claims the police are unable to respond.

He has written to the police telling them that if anyone else provided such a bad service, he would be justified in not paying for it.

But North Wales Police have defended their record, and have say they have put more police officers on the street in response to recent problems.

According to Mr Evans, Holyhead has recently suffered a spate of arson attacks, assaults and incidents of vandalism such as shop windows being smashed.

If I paid for an electrician in my house and he does a bad job, I'm not going to pay him, nor am I going to give him a 26% increase Jeff Evans

He has taken advice from local solicitors over taking the force to court to recover money paid through the council tax precept the police authority gets.

He is also protesting against a 26% rise in the police's council tax precept.

Mr Evans said: "If I paid for an electrician in my house and he does a bad job, I'm not going to pay him, nor am I going to give him a 26% increase which is what the police are asking for.

"What I'd say to the police is: 'You have failed repeatedly'. For 20 years, I have supported the police.

"Now they have let me down, now they have let the public down."

'Disappointed'

Chief Superintendent Gareth Pritchard, divisional commander in charge of Holyhead, said: "Clearly there are issues in Holyhead town centre that we are actively pursuing at the moment.

"We have more resources there but we have to take into note that violent crime is down by a quarter, three-quarters of the cases have been detected, burglaries are down by a third, so there is plenty of good work being down.

"I'm disappointed that at this moment, [Mr Evans] seeks to detract from these initiatives."

But Mr Evans claimed he had figures that showed violent crime had gone up rather than down in Holyhead and across north Wales.