DRUG seizures in Barrow have nearly doubled as police seek out offenders in a stop-and-search blitz.

A more proactive approach to cracking down on drugs in the area has seen police make 90 per cent more drug seizures, Cumbria's crime tsar has said.

David Allen, the county's police, fire and crime commissioner, said many more drugs were being found in the area by police officers carrying out searches and arresting people.

On a visit to the town, he told The Mail: "One of the main reasons is actually we are proactively going out seeking and arresting individuals - doing lots and lots of stop searches. 

"Stop searches countywide have gone from 150 to 800 a month - not quite ten times - and you will therefore find more drugs and more weapons, so that's why we're doing it.

"More seizures, more prevalence of drugs in terms of seizure rates, isn't a bad thing."

Barrow's community inspector Damien Mottram said the approach had followed the appointment of Cumbria's new chief constable Rob Carden last year.

He said: "It's part of our new chief's vision of contempt for criminality. He wants a real focus on the lawful use of stop and search powers as much as possible.

"He wants officers to try and utilise the powers that are given to them as much as possible to try and take the fight to criminals, to try and be professionally curious as to where they think criminality is taking place.

"The side effect of that is I have to explain to councillors and the like at community meetings that you will see drugs and weapons offences rise because those offences can only be recorded at the time we've caught people.

"They were always there and the increase in them is a testament to the proactive tilt that the police have taken, particularly recently."

Mr Allen, who was elected to the post earlier this year, was speaking as he visited Barrow to see the work of community beat officers and groups including Women's Community Matters.