SNT NEWSLETTER

Great Hanwood, , Westbury, Ford, September 2020 Great Ness & Little Ness, Bicton, Rural West Alberbury, Montford Bridge, and Bomere Heath, we also cover the Shrewsbury Safer Neighbourhood Team Town council areas of Bowbrook, Gains (SNT) Park and Bicton Heath including the Royal Shrewsbury and Redwood Hospitals. About your team Insp Safdar Ali How to get in touch PCSO Joe Bradley  101 Extension 66645 to talk to your local PCSO Sarah Edwards SNT at Station. Sgt Rebecca Thomas  Police Volunteer Mr Arthur Jones [email protected] PC Ross Cookson olice.uk

Safer Neighbourhood Teams work with  www.westmercia.police.uk local people and partners to identify, tackle Pontesbury Police Station and solve issues that matter to the @ShrewsburyCops community where you live. Making neighbourhoods safer by cutting day to day crime and anti-social behaviour Only call 999 in an emergency, when a crime is at the heart of keeping people in West is in progress or life is in danger. Mercia safe. We are keen to promote PONTESBURY POLICE STATION closer links with local residents & would OPENING TIMES like to increase the number of Neighbourhood Watch, Speed Watch, WEDNESDAY’S - 4 pm To 7 pm Rural Watch & Horse Watch Schemes – they are easy to set up & require little The Police Station is staffed by volunteers. effort to maintain, please ask how. Sometimes due to circumstances beyond Officers will continue to come to provide a our control we may not be able to have the high quality service however you contact station open to the public. If the station is us - in person (on the street, at community closed and you need to speak to a bases and at partners and communities member of the team please contact us together [PACT] meetings). using the details above. Please join us on social media – if your parish, group or area have a website, The Safer Neighbourhood Team will also ‘page’ or email address, please let us hold Police Surgeries : know. or email us for help & advice. https://westmercia.police.uk Occasionally due to circumstances beyond Where we work our control we may not be able to get to Shrewsbury Rural West is based at - the Surgery or Meeting. If officers are not Pontesbury Police Station, at the location and you need to speak to Road, Pontesbury, SY5 0QH. We work in the team please contact us using the the Parishes of Pontesbury, Minsterley, details above.

Alberbury and Cardeston and Westbury Shrewsbury Copthorne Rural Inc Gains and Halfway House inc – 5 Park – 33 Incidents Incidents

Assault: 1 Assault: 0 Criminal Damage: 1 Criminal Damage: 0 Burglary Residential: 3 Burglary Residential: 1 Theft From Vehicle: 1 Theft From Vehicle: 0 Harassment/Stalking: 0 Harassment/Stalking ASB Nuisance: 4 ASB Nuisance: 0 ASB Personal: 1 ASB Personal: 0 ASB Environmental: 1 ASB Environmental: 0 Concern For Safety: 13 Concern For Safety: 2 Domestic Incident:2 Domestic Incident:0 Threats To Kill:1 Threats To Kill:0 Suspicious Circumstance: 3 Suspicious Circumstance: 0 Civil Dispute: 0 Civil Dispute:0 Sexual Offence:1 Sexual Offence:0 Highway Disruption: 0 Highway Disruption:2 RTC:1 RTC:0

Bicton Rural – 8 Incidents Ford/Great Ness and Little Ness/Nescliffe and Montford Bridge – 3 Incidents Assault: 1

Criminal Damage: 0 Assault: 0 Burglary Residential: 0 Criminal Damage: 0 Theft From Vehicle: 0 Burglary Residential: 0 Harassment/Stalking Theft From Vehicle: 0 ASB Nuisance: 3 Harassment/Stalking ASB Personal: 0 ASB Nuisance: 0 ASB Environmental: 0 ASB Personal: 0 Concern For Safety: 2 ASB Environmental: 0 Domestic Incident: 0 Concern For Safety: 1 Threats To Kill: 0 Domestic Incident:0 Suspicious Circumstance: 2 Threats To Kill:0 Civil Dispute: 0 Suspicious Circumstance: 1 Sexual Offence: 0 Civil Dispute:0 Highway Disruption: 0 Sexual Offence:0 RTC: 0 Highway Disruption:0

RTC:1

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Hanwood/Longden//Hook – A NEIGHBOURHOOD – Gate/Pontesbury and Minsterley – 22 Incidents WATCH

Assault: 0 Criminal Damage: 1 It’s ‘Easy & Effective’ Burglary Residential: 0 Theft From Vehicle: 0 – but we need your Harassment/Stalking: 2 ASB Nuisance: 3 help ASB Personal: 0 ASB Environmental: 1 Concern For Safety: 2 Domestic Incident:4 Threats To Kill:0 Suspicious Circumstance: 2 Civil Dispute:2 Sexual Offence:0 Highway Disruption:3 RTC:2

Bomere Heath – 5 Incidents

Assault: 1 Criminal Damage: 0 The aim of a Neighbourhood Burglary Residential: 0 Watch Scheme is to bring together Theft From Vehicle: 0 like minded neighbours who wish to create Harassment/Stalking a strong friendly community where crime ASB Nuisance: 0 and anti-social behaviour is less likely to ASB Personal: 0 occur.

ASB Environmental: 0 By being a member of a Watch scheme Concern For Safety: 3 you will be a valued link between your Domestic Incident:1 community and the Police – via email, text Threats To Kill:0 message, Facebook, WhatsApp or Suspicious Circumstance: 0 SnapChat (whatever suits you). The police will not run the scheme, as to how that is Civil Dispute:0 done is up to the members, however the Sexual Offence:0 Police will provide help and advice. Highway Disruption:0 RTC:0 There is no lower or higher limit on how many members there can be in a scheme. We have street signs that can be provided and installed free of charge to help keep your area safe. It has been proved that where there is a NHW scheme in place, crime and ASB decreases and the area

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becomes a safer and more pleasant place interesting opportunity that will no doubt give in which to live. this student an invaluable experience, but will also benefit the force when it comes to You may (or may not) decide to have communicating with community members of regular meetings of your members; if so this age. SNT Members or Police staff will do all they can to attend and support those “As Commissioner, I think it’s so important meetings if requested. You can formalise that we find ways to engage with the younger generation and give them a platform. By working together we can really make a difference and have a greater impact within our University of Chester communities.”

Shrewsbury student The University of Chester said: “The University of Chester is pleased to be able to supports local support Shrewsbury Safer Neighbourhood Team which offers students a great policing team volunteering experience and is also a great way for the University to become more involved Students in Shrewsbury have been given the with all sectors of the local community.” opportunity to support their local policing team. New police call Over the past few months the local Safer Neighbourhood Team has been working with handling system to the University of Chester to build links between students at the Shrewsbury campus improve emergency and police. response Now, a student at the campus has been given the opportunity to join the Safer In a bid to improve the service to the public, we have upgraded our emergency call handling Neighbourhood Team as a volunteer, providing software to help us better respond to calls from support to the team as well as a valuable the public, following investment from the insight into life as a student in the town. Police and Crime Commissioner.

Shrewsbury Safer Neighbourhood Inspector, SAAB Safe, the new police command and Saf Ali, said: “The opportunity will be a great control system, was successfully installed in opportunity for the successful candidate to gain the summer. The system, which call handlers real life experience as police officer, engaging use to record details of crimes, emergencies with members of the public and supporting the and other incidents, and to deploy police work we do. officers accordingly, replaced an ageing 30- year-old system, which was no longer fit for “The great benefit for us is it will give us an purpose. insight into life as a student in the town and what we can do to best assist as well as help us The new software helps the call handlers to share crucial messages about to help keep gather more information at the first point of students safe while they are studying in contact, allowing us to respond more Shrewsbury.” effectively and gather more detail about a caller’s circumstances. Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said: “I have been pleased to support this

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Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Jones said: “I discussed the waiting times for calls with the “We currently resolve 50% of the issues Chief Constable as it was a point of concern. reported to us during the initial phone call into This is no reflection on the efforts of West our Contact Centre. This provides a quicker Mercia’s call centre staff who have worked resolution for the individual caller and frees up tremendously hard to deliver a huge police officers to respond to incidents and organisational change during a global crimes. pandemic. However, those staff need the structures and resources around them to ensure “On occasion call handlers need to spend a our communities can access the force when little more time on a call as they work to they need them. I am now reassured that our resolve the situation for the individual and the communities will see sustained improvement in introduction of new software takes time for performance in the weeks ahead, and that the staff to get used to. However, the staff have benefits of the new SAAB system will start to done a fantastic job of rolling out this system, be fully realised.” which is challenging at the best of times, but given the additional demands of Covid-19 and ACC Jones said: “We have now seen increased call-volumes, I am very grateful to improvements and will continue to work hard them all.” to answer the majority of 101 calls within 30 seconds. We are also starting to see a return to This week the Force’s quarterly Performance more normal levels of calls to our 999 and 101 Report will be published, which includes the call lines, which will further help us achieve performance data for our Public Contact our goal. Centre. The report shows that during July and August, we saw a 60% surge in emergency 999 “We did see a 71% increase in online reporting calls, increasing from an average of 10,000 during July and August, which is really calls a month to 16,000. This increase in positive and I would encourage more people to demand was reflected nationally, following the make use of the online, non-emergency relaxation of lockdown restrictions and the reporting facility. It enables people to report reductions in people taking oversees holidays. issues at their convenience and allows us to manage the demand more effectively, ensuring The Contact Centre prioritises 999 calls, people we can prioritise those in life threatening in urgent need of a police response. During situations or where a crime is in progress. periods of high 999 call demand, call waiting times for the 101 service can increase as a “Thank you to the communities across result, which was the case during that summer Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and period. Telford, for your ongoing support and understanding.” ACC Jones said: “We are normally able to answer the majority of 101 calls within 30 seconds, however during the summer we saw a Safe Tyres Save Lives reduction in the amount being answered within this timeframe, with the average wait This October is national tyre safety month. increasing to just under three minutes. I would During the month-long campaign, organised like to thank the public for their patience over by TyreSafe, motorists will be encouraged to recent months if they have had to wait when check their tyres, focusing on three key contacting us via the 101 number.” areas: Air pressure; Condition; and Tread depth – ACT. The campaign seeks to PCC, John Campion said: “My investment in encourage motorists to check their tyres at SAAB Safe gives staff and officers the tools least once a month every month, and before they need to deliver the best possible service to long journeys, especially with vehicles that our communities for years to come. may now be back on the road.

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Every year 170 motorists on average are For more information on tyre safety and how to reported killed or seriously injured due to carry out maintenance checks, visit incidents caused by tyre-related defects. tyresafe.org However, one-in-five drivers have never checked their tyres’ tread – among younger drivers it’s one-in-three.

Tyre condition is a significant contributory factor with regards to road collisions and it is estimated that there are approximately 10 million dangerous and illegal tyres on Britain’s roads every year.

Drivers are reminded that it is a legal requirement to ensure their tyres are in good condition and at the correct tread depth (minimum depth of 1.6 mm) and there is a potential £2500 maximum fine and three- penalty points applicable to each tyre found to be below that limit or in an unroadworthy condition, more importantly this could also increase the chance of being involved in a collision. A tread depth gauge or even 20- pence piece can be used to how close a tyre is to that limit. When using a 20p, simply insert the coin into the main grooves across the tyre’s centre and at numerous points around its circumference and check to see if the border of the coin is visible. If it is, you may be close to the legal limit and should have the tyre properly measured by a professional.

Tyres should also be free of lumps, bumps or bulges and without any signs of cracking. The correct tyre pressures ensure the vehicle brakes, steers and accelerates as the vehicle manufacturer intended. Under or over-inflated tyres can actually increase motoring costs by reducing fuel economy and increasing tyre wear in addition to the considerable safety risk they represent.

Superintendent Mel Crowther for commenting on the campaign says; “This national campaign highlights the importance of maintaining our tyres and the essential checks we should all be undertaking on a routine basis. We welcome the advice this campaign delivers and this will be backed up with prosecuting those where needed.”

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