DAY 42: Rural crime prevention event at Countrywide Chipping Norton

Last Wednesday (11/12) PCSO Angela Alford from the Banbury Rural neighbourhood team hosted a crime prevention event at Chipping Norton’s Countrywide store. 

Giving advice: PCSO Angela Alford talks to local people about crime prevention

Crime Prevention at Countrywide Chipping Norton

“It was a successful day offering crime prevention advice and giving out lots of farm packs and information; particularly a lot of advice on shed and garage security” said Angela. “I spoke with people from the Banbury area and people who live further out in West Oxfordshire who had seen the Thames Valley Alert for the event and decided to come in and see so it was a very well attended event.”

 

The Thames Valley Police website has recently been updated with advice around building security including, outbuilding, farmhouse and general home crime prevention.

Meanwhile, PCSO Lana Smith visited Crouch Farm with the area’s Crime Prevention and Reduction Adviser Jayne Taylor and security marked several items for the owner. 

Security marking at Crouch Farm

If you are interested in security marking your property, you can get in touch with your local neighbourhood policing team either via email (use the postcode search function on the website to find your local team) or call 101 and ask to speak to your local neighbourhood team.

In the meantime, the CRE-Mark and Smartwater websites can offer some advice about unique security property marking. 

Valuables can also be registered on the Immobilise website. Immobilise is a national database all police forces use when they have found stolen property. If your stolen valuables are registered on the database you are more likely to have them returned to you, if they are recovered by police. You can register all sorts of valuable property on the site and it is free to use!

Day 39: Rural residents turn out to speakers’ event at Countrywide Chipping Norton to talk sheep

On Wednesday night (25/9), the Countrywide store in Chipping Norton held a speakers event about various issues around sheep and other agricultural issues. The event was attended by 76 farmers, vets and some of the biggest landowners in the Country. 

Naturally, the 100 days of action team went along and PCSO Angie Alford presented some prevention advice around livestock thefts and answered questions about recent thefts of sheep in the area. 

If you missed the event, here is some advice about protecting your livestock:

• Report any suspicious activity to the police straight away via the 24-hour non-emergency number 101 or if it is a crime in progress call 999. Encourage all farm workers and staff to do the same!
• Check livestock regularly. If they are making more noise than usual, this could mean something has disturbed them. Check the fields and surrounding areas for signs that someone may be in the fields.
• Check security of boundary fencing and hedging. Make regular checks to ensure fences haven’t been breached and make sure any damage is repaired as soon as possible
• Ear tags, horn brands, freeze marking and tattooing make animals more easily identifiable