THE district's top police officer has given his personal reassurance that local communities will not lose out if additional resources are needed to cope with the impact of the proposed Hinkley C development.

Chief Superintendent Daimon Tilley, Somerset West district commander, was speaking at an Avon and Somerset Police Authority meeting in Williton on Wednesday.

He said he had been working closely with a number of organisations including prospective Hinkley C developer EDF Energy.

He said if permission was given for the new nuclear power station, the construction site would be the biggest in Europe and the expected influx of workers could bring an increase in crime.

There would also be an impact on local traffic, and consideration had to be given to the potential for on-site emergencies and the effect of anti-nuclear protests.

"We are working to ensure that people locally don't find themselves disadvantaged or have a denuded police service as a result of us having to deal with issues at Hinkley Point," he said.

"We can seek contributions from EDF towards the cost of policing and have already secured £1 million through the preliminary works agreement.

"We are in the process of negotiating for the long-term . . . a key part of that is to ensure we have an additional number of staff recruited and deployed.

"We will still be able to provide people with the service they deserve in West Somerset."

Mr Tilley said the Somerset West policing district was the largest in the force area and covered the local authority areas of West Somerset, Sedgemoor and Taunton Deane and included three-quarters of Exmoor.

There were 317 police officers, 160 support staff including police community support officers, 119 specials and 31 volunteers serving the district.

"Everyone works as one big team to make Somerset West a safe place to live in and visit," Mr Tilley said.

He said in the Somerset West sector, recorded crime was down 25 per cent since 2006/07, detection rates were up 15 per cent and satisfaction with the force was also up five per cent.

But he said figures for the current year to date, which runs from April 2011 to the end of March 2012, were showing an increase in crime.

He said it would be a challenge to get on top of the figures but added that the increase was largely due to the police targeting resources and taking a pro-active approach to drugs and the "night-time economy".

Mr Tilley said: "It is not an increase in the number of victims, it's because we're being proactive and intervening a little earlier than we would have done previously.

"Since April, there have been an additional 400 arrests and that is why we have this increase.

"We want to reassure people that we are working hard to drive down crime in this area and we won't rest until we continue to drive that down."

Inspector Lisa Simpson, in charge of the MInehead sector, said one of the biggest challenges facing West Somerset's officers was the rurality of the patch and staff were constantly looking at ways of working closely with the more rural hamlets.

On a West Somerset level, crime had also dropped, down from 2,371 offences in 2006/07 to 1,608 in 2010/11, although the current figures were also showing an increase for the current year.

She said West Somerset was particularly vulnerable to "seasonal crime" and April's good weather had seen a rise in the number of opportunist thieves travelling to the area.

The district's main crimes were thefts from cars parked at beauty spots and rural outbuilding break-ins.

She said officers were well aware of what the main community issues were across the district and stressed that West Somerset still had a relatively low crime level.

She said local officers worked in partnership with a number of local organisations, including local councils, Butlins and the West Somerset Community College.

Volunteers had also proved invaluable in running a CCTV scheme in the district which had led to a number of detections.

"We have a lot to be proud of but complacency has not set in and while we have low crime, we want to work towards no crime," Mrs Simpson said.

Wednesday's meeting was only the second to be held away from the force's headquarters as part of a drive to make the work of the authority more accessible to the public.