The emergency services have raised concerns over a spike in burglaries as well as a new hotspot for people deliberately setting fires in Wirral South.

It was revealed on Wednesday that the Heswall Dales nature reserve had been the location of an unusually high number of recent fires, and that the Wirral South constituency, similar to other areas of the borough, had seen a worrying increase in break-ins.

Georgie Minnery, local neighbourhood inspector for Merseyside Police, told the Wirral South constituency committee: “The number of burglary offences force-wise has really shot up, primarily in more affluent areas, with many of them car key burglaries – when an implement is put through letter boxes to take keys left close to front doors.

“For me, burglary is right up there with crimes affecting people the most.

“Quality of life policing [including disorderly conduct and homelessness] are important but the force recognizes burglaries, and we are really trying to push on in that respect.”

The meeting was held at Mayer Hall in Bebington, and she said that in February, there had been 85 burglaries in Wirral South compared with the same month last year, when there had been 58.

Across Wirral, the number for the past three months was 600, she added.

Insp Minnery added: “It’s a big number, but it’s replicated force-wide, which is why we are taking this approach.

“We attend every single burglary and speak to every victim, visiting all residents in nearby locality looking for CCTV clues and anything of note providing reassurance and crime prevention information.”

Labour councillor for Bromborough, Warren Ward, praised the work done by the force amid cuts to police budgets.

He said: “Per police officer they are serving 10,000s of Wirral residents.

“They have had an increase in the area they cover but also reduction in overall policing staff. That’s the reality of pressure police service is under and that’s what I want people to take home from this meeting.”

Speaking about the new fire hotspot constituency manager Fergus Adams told the committee: “There is no particular fire hotspot in Wirral South but over the past few weeks there have been a number of deliberately started ones on Heswall Dales. It’s a concerning situation. There’s clearly something going on there – it’s a particularly big number of fires.”

Speaking on behalf of Merseyside Fire station manager, Ritchie Clarke, Mr Adams said thanks to a concerted effort by the service, there had been “real progress”.

Since the last committee meeting in October, there had been 33 deliberate secondary fires – a 41% like-for-like reduction, he added.

Mr Adams added: “That should be noted by the committee. We have done some really good work here.”

Addressing further fire concerns affecting the area, ward councillor for Heswall, Les Rowlands, added: “We had a major house fire in Heswall due to a washing machine recently.

“We’d like everyone to take a good look at appliances – we have reports of these appliances coming from abroad. Please check they are safe and not one of these faulty ones. It was a major house fire and we don’t to see things like that.”