WELCOME to low-crime Glasgow.

Today we reveal the city's safest neighbourhoods, the police beats with the least trouble. And they are certainly not always in the leafier parts of the West End or South Side.

In fact, the thriving Farmington Avenue scheme, in Shettleston, is one of Glasgow's 10 safest police beats for the third successive year in our Crime on Your Street series.

Officially the safest beat in Glasgow, however, is Yorkhill Quay, home to the city's flagship £74million Riverside Transport Museum. Here, in 2011-12, there were just nine crimes, mostly thefts.

It can be hard to compare police beats fairly. After all, as largely historic entities, they come in different sizes and populations.

But nine crimes in Yorkhill Quay contrasts with nearly 3500 in the city's busiest beat, Alpha Bravo 6, the beat that covers the bottom of Buchanan Street and the blocks to its east, including Queen Street.

So if you want to be safe, where should you be?

Clydeside regenerated

THERE was little or no crime in most of the neighbourhoods created on the Clyde – most of which have relatively few residents.

Take Yorkhill Quay, home to the new transport museum, officially the city's safest beat with just nine crimes in 2011-12, none of them violent.

But neighbouring beats are also safe. The SECC, for example, had 87 crimes in the year, admittedly up from 56 the year before.

This mostly appears to be down to police stop-and-searches on concert goers.

A total of 16 people were ticketed for public boozing in the patch in 2011-12 and another 10 for being in possession of illegal drugs.

There were no serious violence offences but 13 minor assaults – all this despite massive throughput of people for concerts and events and the SECC venues.

Pacific Quay, home to the BBC, STV and the Science Centre is also quiet with just 39 offences.

Glasgow Harbour, between Partick and the Clyde, had 154 crimes, more than half of them theft, compared to more than 700, for example, at nearby Partick Cross.

The East End

THE East End has seen crime, especially violent crime, fall quickly in recent years, but some beats are far quieter than others.

The area around Farmington Avenue, an estate of bought houses, is once again one of the least crime-ridden in Glasgow.

It had just 59 crimes in 2011-12, about the same as the village of Carmunnock.

Council bosses will be reading some of the crime stats in the East End with real relief. Some of the areas they are regenerating for the Commonwealth Games are now exceptionally quiet.

Take the western half of Dalmarnock.

It now features in the top 10 safest beats in Glasgow.

The small beat at Parkhead and Springfield Road, home to the new indoor arena, comes in at number 11 with just 127 crimes in 2011-12.

The beat we call "Celtic Park and Barrowfield South" had just over 200, less than half the figure six years ago.

This neighbourhood, to the west of the stadium, has undergone huge housing regeneration in recent years. In the most recent financial year it had just one serious assault.

Regeneration, of course, can cut the population of an area.

But better homes and lighting can "design out" crime too by, for example, leaving fewer rat-runs for gangs or hiding places for drug users.

The West End

THE cliche still stands: the better-off neighbourhoods of the West End DO have less crime than much of the city.

But there are exceptions. Hillhead, for example, with its student population, was the 14th busiest of the 200 or so Glasgow beats in 2011-12, with 1122 crimes.

Nearby Dowanhill is split in two by police.

The quieter western half – away from the main drag of Byres Road – had very little crime, just 149 cases.

The busier west had more than 400 and more, indeed, than areas such as Possilpark (which has been depopulated in recent years), Arden and Pollokshields West.

The two Dowanhill beats, meanwhile, still had 56 house break-ins or attempted break-ins between them. Hyndland, where thefts pushed up crime, had another 20.

Crime also edged up in still very safe Broomhill due to thefts and vandalism – and a spate of four robberies, the only serious violent crimes recorded in the area.

But Broomhill, once by far Glasgow's safest populated neighbourhood, still had only around 150 crimes in 2011-12.

But it's not all good news

THIS time last year the Evening Times named Govanhill West as Glasgow's most violent beat.

The neighbourhood – in code Golf Echo 68 – suffered 69 so-called "Group 1 offences", the most serious non-sexual crimes the police record, in 2010-11.

That was more than any other beat, including the busy main areas of the city centre.

Govanhill West still has its problems.

But it is no longer Glasgow's most violent as its overall Group 1 total falls to 43 – largely thanks to a reduction in muggings and, especially, "cruel and unusual treatment of children".

However, official figures for all crimes in Golf Echo 68 are up, almost certainly as a result of intense police activity such as stop-and-search finding drugs, booze and knives.

There were 1785 crimes in the beat in 2011-12, up from 1715 the year before and more than in any year since the Evening Times began its Crime on Your Street project in 2006-2007.

These included nearly 200 minor assaults – a figure almost unchanged for six years.

There were also 198 cases of threatening and abusive behaviour, 314 of public drinking, 162 of vandalism and 148 of theft. Only five beats in the whole city are busier.