Thursday 20 January 2011

On the beat

We had a very useful visit from neighbourhood police officer PC John Birch and PCSO Elaine Fleet at parish council last night. Jon came across as really engaged and at the same time he was very honest about how stretched the thin blue line is in a safer neighbourhood team that stretches across the Vale and all the way to Woburn.

The biggest issue in Cranfield in the last few years has been the so-called 'cruise', 'boyracers' or whatever you want to call them. A couple of years ago we got double yellow lines in and that cleared the way for some kind of traffic calming making hi performance hi jinx impossible. Yeh! Now local businesses have coughed up the cost of the various speed reducing structures and these are out for consultation. Someone on the business park has actually objected but we are hoping that will not stop the scheme going in.

So maybe that is on the way out as an issue but there will probably still be plenty to do. Jon related
some of the other distractions in recent months including criminal damage at a mobile in Lodge road, assault in College Road, various thefts and damages and,  would you Adam and Eve it, lead off the porch roof  at the parish church. That's happened before in the last two or three years. There was one extremely odd one that was successfully detected using DNA evidence. Nuff said - minor I would add.

Julia Wright, one of our former PCSOs, has moved away and everyone is feeling the gap. She, along with Leigh Iddon was a great advertisement for the PCSO concept, putting in a lot of local work (specially on the cruise) and getting to know all sorts of people. She was a really familiar face. No doubt Jon, Elaine and their colleague Keith Glen will do a good job as long as they are allowed to hang around.

Dont forget - to make contact tel 01234 842616 or email snt.woburn@bedfordshire.pnn.police.uk

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