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Local Police Update

by Haddenham Webteam – 29th August 2017
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The Waddesdon & Haddenham neighbourhood policing team has recently published its quarterly news update, reproduced here:

News from the team by PC Tom Chalk

Hello and welcome to the now quarterly neighbourhood update from the Waddesdon and Haddenham Neighbourhood Policing Team.

I hope that you have had the opportunity to have a break over the summer months and enjoy with somewhat sketchy British weather or more reliable sunshine overseas. The summer holiday period is always a busy one for the police, and with many officers and staff taking a well-earned break with their families there is extra pressure to deal with all of the commitments such as Royal Ascot, Henley Regatta as well as maintain business as usual across rural Aylesbury.

Sadly one of the comments which we hear quite often whilst out and about is "We never see the police around here?" Whilst the days of the traditional village bobby might be a thing of the past I would like to reassure residents that we do our very best to be visible and accessible to everyone across the area. Patrolling in excess of 30 villages and many square miles of countryside can be quite challenging, particularly when other commitments like those mentioned previously take me off the area, as well as regular training and other operations. In recent weeks we have managed to patrol on foot in many of the villages including Quainton, Grendon Underwood, Marsh Gibbon, Haddenham, Long Crendon, Stone and Cuddington. Whilst patrolling on foot in Cuddington I was mistaken for someone from the Waterboard, and similarly in Stone a report came in of a suspicious male dressed as a police officer looking into cars! I have also been out on my bike patrolling in most of the villages, indeed one day back in July I did over 50 miles of cycle patrol in one shift.

I received a question recently about what the role of the neighbourhood police officer/community support officers actually involved these days and so I thought I would take the opportunity to outline some of the activities that the team get up to; we spend a lot of time working with schools, giving talks to both children and parents about such things as internet safety and road safety. We also spend time with elderly groups giving talks on crime prevention and fraud prevention. We regularly attend allotments and private properties to mark power tools and other equipment to make it a less attractive proposition to thieves. We attend events like fetes and other public events to meet the public and make ourselves more accessible to people who otherwise might not have access to the police service. We spend a lot of time out on patrol in the villages to both deter offences and reassure the public. We respond to live incidents like road traffic collisions and missing peoples to assist the response teams. We deal with local issues like disputes between neighbours and antisocial behaviour, often meeting up with partner agencies like housing associations to resolve issues for the benefit of all involved. We deal with people who for whatever reason place a great demand on the police service, looking at ways we can resolve their issues and thus reduce demand on other branches of the police.

We deal with requests from the public to assist with local issues. Some recent examples of these kind of enquiries are listed below:

We were contacted by Marsh Gibbon Parish Council regarding some damage to trees in the playing field. We increased our patrols in the area and put up some signage to deter any further damage and thankfully the issue has been resolved.

We were contacted by Grendon Underwood Parish Council about some drugs paraphernalia found by a member of the public in the park. We increased our patrols in the area and liaised with the intelligence officer at the prison to identify who the perpetrators might be and there have been no further similar findings.

We received complaints of speeding from various villages across the area. We have been working closely with parish councils and the local area forum to train and roll out the community speedwatch scheme which enables volunteers to play a part in speed reduction in their own villages.

We received reports of gun shots being heard in the woods near Waddesdon School. We investigated and found that some local children were meeting up in the woods and setting aerosol cans on fire were to blame for the noises. We have worked with the school and Waddesdon Manor Security to both improve security in the area and educate the children about their behaviour and its impact on other residents.

On the 22nd of July we held our annual Emergency Services Day at Bucks Railway Centre, Quainton. Previously held at Waddesdon Manor, the new location proved a big hit with visitors and as well as the steam trains there were police cars, fire engines, ambulances and a host of other locals charities and organisations represented. We have already begun planning for next year.

Also in July we held the first of our Police Community Forums. These are quarterly meetings held at "neutral" venue where members of the public are invited to attend and make suggestions for what they would like the team to work on in terms of priorities over the next few months. As a result of those meetings, the priorities we are currently working on are; reducing burglaries and serious acquisitive crime and reducing rural crime. The next community forums are scheduled for the beginning of October, please get in touch if you would like to come along.

Local priorities

Burglaries and acquisitive crime
We have been proactively patrolling areas which have historically been subject to burglaries and theft from motor vehicles, we have been sharing intelligence with our neighbours in Oxfordshire to enable us to target specific offenders, we have been postcode marking the tools of people in hotspot areas to deter thieves and using social media/TV alerts and crime prevention events to spread crime prevention advice.

Rural crime
We recently held a rural crime day of action where we visited farms and other areas of interest to sign people up to Farmwatch and are planning another one in September.

Crime prevention/news

To read tips and advice on the following topics, click on the PDF located below the image on this page

Vehicle online shopping fraud
Wedding services fraud
Protecting outbuildings
Letter box security
Drink driving
Pet fraud
Vehicle security
Opportunist burglary
Anti-social behaviour

Contacting the Local Policing Team

You can visit the team Police Station on the Waddesdon High Street. The front counter is opened by Volunteers who are now under the supervision of the Neighbourhood Team, so we cannot guarantee that the opening times will always be consistent with the hours listed below.

Opening hours are:

Monday 10.00 – 13.00
Tuesday ***CLOSED***
Wednesday 10.00 – 13.00
Thursday 09:00 – 12:00
Friday 10:00 – 13:00
Saturday ***CLOSED***
Sunday ***CLOSED***

If you want any advice or would like to contact the neighbourhood team you can call us on the police non-emergency number 101 but if your call is an emergency then dial 999.

You can also contact us via email:
waddesdonNHPT@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk
or
haddenhamandlongcrendonnhpt@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

Please note this email address cannot be used to contact Thames Valley Police to report crimes or for any urgent matters.   

If you have information about crime or anti-social behaviour in your area but you do not want to speak to the police, please call the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555111.

To view information on your neighbourhood team you can visit the force website at: www.thamesvalley.police.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @TVP_Aylesbury, #P5823

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