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.
