DAY 55: Milton Keynes rural neighbourhood team attempt to sign up whole village to Thames Valley Alerts (and pretty much succeed!)

The Milton Keynes rural neighbourhood team began the winter phase of their 100 days of action on Monday (13/1).

A team of seven PCSOs, headed up by PCSO Kirsty Martinson, attempted to sign up a whole village to the Thames Valley Alert messaging service.

Hanslope was the chosen destination with a population of almost 2500. Every address was visited and those residents who were in were signed up and for those who weren’t, some details were left about how to sign up themselves.

If you have done so already, you can sign up to Thames Valley Alert or Country Watch Alert by following the links.

Country Watch is a free Thames Valley Alert messaging service specifically for rural and farming communities and businesses across the Thames Valley. As with Thames Valley Alert, you are able to choose whether you receive messages via email, text or telephone.

By signing up to the general Thames Valley Alert messaging service, you will be notified of all policing and crime issues in your area but don’t forget to choose the ‘Country Watch’ option on the community membership list when you register if you still want to receive rural crime related news too.

DAYS 1- 4, Milton Keynes kick off 100 days of action!

Monday (22/7) saw the start of TVPs 100 days of action to tackle rural crime in the not-so seemingly rural LPA, Milton Keynes.

For the first of their five day stints, the Rural Milton Keynes Neighbourhood Team decided to intensively patrol 'off the beaten track' locations in high visability off-road vehicles, conduct Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) operations in hotspot locations and visit all 80 farms on the area to offer specific crime prevention advice.


Patrolling off the beaten track

 Here is what happened...

One of the most isolated villages in the neighbourhood area, Newton Blossomville, was targetted by criminals who committed 17 burglary and theft from vehicle offences both in the village and just over the border into Bedfordshire.

Since then, two men have been arrested and charged with 17 counts of conspiracy to steal. The two men Wilson Turney, aged 20, of High Street South, Olney and 21 year-old Scott Cannon, of Tabbard Gardens in Newport Pagnell appeared at Milton Keynes Magistrates Court today (26/7), Turney has been remanded in custody and Cannon has been conditionally released on electronic tag both until the 1 August.

A 15 year-old boy from Bedford Road, Olney has also been arrested on suspicion of four counts of theft of theft from motor vehicle, one count of burglary dwelling, six counts of burglary non dwelling and three counts of attempted theft from a motor vehicle. He has been released on bail until the Tuesday (30/7).

The ANPR operation resulted in six vehicles being stopped and dealt with for road traffic offences.

Although strictly speaking, these crimes don't come under the TVP 'rural crime definition', this is an example of how intensive operational work can not only build intelligence on the crimes Thames Valley Police are focussing on, but also detect other crimes which are of a serious concern to the community.

Sergeant Andy Paulden, who has led the team this week, said: "We're fortunate that we have a relatively low number of rural crimes happening within our area compared to other areas in the Force, however we acknowledge that when these crimes, or any other crimes do happen, they have a profound effect on the farming and rural community.

"We will be carrying on our high visibility patrols with the hope of disrupting and catching criminals who are of most concern to the area."

More information about rural crime, Country Watch and the Thames Valley Rural Crime Partnership can be found on the Thames Valley Police website.