This section covers the latest information from Thames Valley Police and from SaferMK which is a statutory organisation run by the six ‘Responsible Authorities’ being Thames Valley Police, the Thames Valley Police Authority, Bucks Fire and Rescue Service, Thames Valley Probation Service, Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust and Milton Keynes Council.
Two advisors sit on the Responsible Authorities Group representing Milton Keynes parishes. One is Cllr Philip Ayles from Castlethorpe who represents Milton Keynes rural parishes.
The Safer Neighbourhoods Group is part of SaferMK and there is a Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) for Rural West which includes Castlethorpe, Hanslope and Haversham. The Minutes of the NAG are available in the Public Papers and Forms section of this website.
Residents identified three priorities which the NAG is addressing in conjunction with Castlethorpe Parish Council. These are;
- Speeding where traffic calming islands have been built at all village entrances and we participate in Community Speed Watch (see separate article)
- Inconsiderate Parking where the Police take action but will normally issue a warning notice before a fixed penalty fine. The Parish Council is also arranging for white lines around bus stops and asks residents not to park by the bus stops in such a way as to prevent buses drawing up to the kerb. Patients are also asked not to park opposite the surgery at Hanslope.
- Dog fouling. In addition to notices, the NAG has acquired four dog bins in Castlethorpe and the Parish Council has an emptying contract for them. Residents are asked not to allow their dogs to foul the pavements and footpaths as the viruses in dog faeces are extremely dangerous especially to children. (See article below)
Thames Valley Police produce a monthly report for the neighbourhood and this can be seen by visiting Rural West Neighbourhood and following the link for the latest report. The website also contains details of the local police team.
SaferMK also runs a Crime Mapping website at MK Crime Map This has a lot more categories for crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) than the national crime website. Please note this works in Internet Explorer and Firefox but not in Chrome.
To use this website, you can enter ‘Castlethorpe’ in the ‘Neighbourhood, Area or Estate’ box and select the crime category in which you are interested including ‘All Crime’ and ‘All Anti-Social Behaviour’. If you then right click on the map over Castlethorpe, crime statistics will be displayed.
The website also has street-level crime reporting. However, this doesn’t apply to rural areas (because it makes it easy to identify individual houses) and it only applies to individual crime or ASB categories and not to the ‘All’ categories.
The Minutes of the Rural West (Castlethorpe, Hanslope and Haversham) Neighbourhood Action Group held on 14th June can be downloaded here They are subject to approval or amendment at the next meeting on 13th September at Hanslope Village Hall.
Documents have been saved as Adobe PDF files for which there is a free reader available from Adobe
In 2010, residents made a number of complaints about doorstep ‘sellers’ who were both from energy companies and also some representing reputable charities but who residents felt were being overly aggressive.
These complaints were taken up by both the Parish Council and our Ward Councillor and, as a result, Milton Keynes Trading Standards has produced a leaflet which has been delivered to all Castlethorpe households.
The leaflet can be downloaded here.
If you are called by a representative who is overly persistent, ask them to leave. If they do not leave, it is deemed to be aggressive selling under the Consumer Protection Regulations and a criminal offence so please note their details and contact either Trading Standards on 08454 04 05 06 or Thames Valley Police on 0845 8 505 505.
You can also let the Parish Clerk (522900) or any Parish Councillor know and they will contact the organisation concerned or MKC Trading Standards.
Dog fouling was one of the three priorities identified by residents in the neighbourhood survey which was done by Thames Valley Police as part of setting up the Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) in 2008. (The other two were speeding and inconsiderate parking.)
Dog fouling is not only unpleasant for residents but it can contain worms which cause serious eye disorders for adults and children.
The NAG, which also covers Hanslope and Haversham, has used part of its funding to buy and install dog bins in the three villages. At the same time, the parish councils have committed to have these emptied regularly which has to be done by a specialist contractor.
There are three dog bins in Castlethorpe; one by the entrance to Castle Field opposite the shop, one on South Street next to the gate to the footbridge and one outside the school where there had been quite a lot of dog mess – young children are particularly vulnerable to getting the eye disorders.
PLEASE
- PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOG & PUT THE BAG IN THE DOG BINS.
- DO NOT TAKE DOGS ONTO THE SPORTS GROUND – USE THE FENCED FOOTPATHS AT EITHER END.
Milton Keynes Council wardens, who are working with the NAG, will also be in the villages and will issue fixed penalty notices to dog owners who do not clear up after their dogs as required under the ‘Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996’. The penalties are £50 under a fixed penalty notice and up to £1000 if taken to court.
However, let’s use the new dog bins and keep our village clean and safe for our children.
Community Speed Watch is a joint initiative by the Milton Keynes rural Neighbourhood Action Groups including Rural West to which Castlethorpe belongs.
Its objective is to deter speeding in our village.
Community Speed Watch is operated by trained volunteers and a police representative, either our local PC, Andy Perry, or one of the PCSO team, will always be in attendance.
The device is mounted on a tripod next to the road in 30mph or 40mph areas. The volunteers have a small handheld ‘reader’ which tells them the speed of passing vehicles. If a vehicle is speeding, a note is made of the licence number and other details and, at the end of the day, these are passed to Thames Valley Police.
Warning letters will be sent by TVP to offending drivers but CSW is not used as a basis for prosecution. However, if a particular vehicle is found to be speeding regularly or an area is shown to be subject to a lot of speeding, then CSW can be used as a basis for further police or other action.
Details of the Neighbourhood Action Group can be found by following this link
On March 1st 2010, SaferMK launched an innovative online Community Safety Mapping website. The site provides a comprehensive crime and anti-social behaviour statistical breakdown for every estate, town or village across Milton Keynes.
The SaferMK Community Safety Mapping, which has been created by Milton Keynes based company Zubed, is ground breaking in terms of the depth of information provided. Figures are released each month, and users of the website will be able to simply type in their postcode or click on their estate or village on the website map to access visually crime and anti-social behaviour statistics relevant to their communities.
The website, accessed via SaferMK, allows members of the public to view 27 different categories of crime and anti-social behaviour data within their neighbourhood and estate. These include burglary, robbery, rowdy inconsiderate behaviour and deliberate firesetting.
Richard Solly, SaferMK manager said: “By providing these 27 categories SaferMK is offering the public a clear depiction of crime and anti-social behaviour data. Other similar sites have combined different levels of crime ranging from minor to very serious crime under one banner which can lead to confusion.
“By breaking the categories down this information is put into perspective. Through visiting SaferMK the public will also be able to access advice on being safe and reducing the chances of becoming a victim of crime.“
SaferMK Community Safety Mapping uses data provided by Thames Valley Police, Milton Keynes Council & Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue service.
The website will be updated monthly to provide data from the previous month.
The Rural West Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) has been concerned about a number of parking problems and has asked that Thames Valley Police take some action.
Patients are asked not to park on the road opposite the surgery as this causes an obstruction especially if the vehicle is parked partially on the pavement.
If the surgery car park is full, Hanslope Parish Council has made the car park at the Recreation Ground available which is only 200m away.
