The Melksham Area Community Safety Group meets in the Town Hall on the last Thursday of every month to consider issues that affect the community and devise ways of addressing them.
Last week the group considered a report on Neighbourhood Watch activities from coordinator Sue Stoker and discussed its on-going promotion and to build on its success in and around Melksham.
They report, “Leanne Holmwood, Community SpeedWatch coordinator, reported on the growing success of the scheme in terms of the increase in teams to 140 in Wiltshire and Swindon, the increase in warning letters issued during the past 12 months at 22,951 and the decrease in speeding incidents by over 20%. She reported that there were now over 700 trained volunteers and the latest scheme in Beanacre was up and running with a team of 14.
“The group welcomed this achievement and its benefit to communities and agreed to seek confirmation from the PCC that support for this initiative would continue. It also agreed to look at areas where schemes lacked enough volunteer support to continue with a view to helping change that.
“The police reported on progress following up recent thefts of cycles and one disturbing fact emerged that many cycles were in fact left unsecured as were many doors to sheds, vehicles and houses. It was suggested by one member that perhaps reporting a theft when the victim had made no effort to take commonsense and well-publicised steps to protect his or her property was tantamount to wasting police time.
“Current Police priorities were discussed and confirmed as targetting high-risk offenders, drug networks and thieves preying on the elderly and vulnerable such as those with handbags in shops and their car parks.
“The next meeting will be held on Thursday 23rd June in Melksham Town Hall and anyone wishing to have any community-safety issue addressed by the group or to offer support is asked to email melkshamcap@gmail.com or contact the Town Hall.”
