A ground-breaking police mapping system has identified the top crime hotpots in the centre of Canterbury.

The revolutionary street-by-street rundown reveals St George’s Street to be the city’s worst road, with 29 crimes reported in December.

Next up are Butchery Lane with 26, Hawks Lane with 22 and Upper Bridge Street with 16 crimes in the space of a month.

The figures are revealed on a new police mapping website, allowing people to check how many crimes have been reported in their street.

The site proved so popular when it was launched last week – with more than 300,000 hits a minute – that it crashed on its first day.

Billed as a “reassurance tool” for the public, it lists any incidents reported in or around a street in a given month.

It also breaks down crime types, listing the number of burglaries, robberies, car crimes and incidents of anti-social behaviour.

Violent crimes – including assault, GBH and harassment offences – are also listed, with Hawk’s Lane racking up five of the town’s 49 reported cases.

Honeywood Close is home to most burglaries, with three, while Station Road East tops the anti-social behaviour list with nine.

In total there were 446 reported crimes in the city centre.

Canterbury City Council’s executive member for public safety Cllr Peter Vickery-Jones has voiced his concerns about the website.

He said: “While it may provide reassurance for some, I think it’s likely to have the opposite effect on most people.

“You may consider your street to be crime-free, but one glance at this website could throw up incidents you weren’t aware of. It could easily frighten people.

“I’m not saying don’t make the information readily-available, but those who really wanted to know would have looked into it already. Ignorance is bliss, after all.”

Kent Police’s Deputy Chief Constable Alan Pughsley said: “We have joined up with all police forces in England and Wales to launch a new tool that will help communities to better understand what’s happening in their community.

“By making this information available, we aim to raise awareness of what we’re doing to tackle crime and disorder and how local people can support their local police.”

To check out crime in your street visit www.police.uk.