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| Farm Watch |
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| Wednesday, 09 April 2008 | |
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Saturday 5th April saw Cilcain Young Farmers, North Wales Police, Neighbourhood Watch and Brynle Williams (AM)come together to launch Farmwatch. PC Hazel Goss Community Safety Officer for North Wales Police says"Farm Watch" is a new initiative which is being run in Flintshire . Farm Watch along side Neighbourhood Watch comes with so many added benefits in addressing crime and making areas where we live and work safer. The aims of Farm Watch are: * Reduce opportunities for crime and vandalism. * Strengthen community spirit so that everyone plays their part in protecting their property. * Improve two-way communication between farmers and the Police. * Reduce the fear of crime. As Community Safer Officer for Flintshire I can provide practical crime prevention advice to farmers and landowners to ensure their property and goods are as secure as possible, running property marking schemes and advice on security cameras and alarms. I would also like farmers and members of the public to go onto the North Wales Police Web Site and register with "My Things" this service is free and you can place all your valuable items on this site, if stolen can be circulated country wide” Helen Davies Chairman of Cilcain Young Farmers says “As Chairman of Cilcain Young Farmers Club, the farm watch scheme and data tagging system was something that interested me greatly. There have always been incidents of farm burglaries in our area. Also in our club one of our young members had a quad bike stolen from their farm, it made us stop and think what could be done to prevent thieves from coming onto our farms and stealing our property. Community Beat Manager PC Aldous came to the club to give a general talk about his work as our community beat officer, it was then that the initiative started. The Community Safety Partnership provided funding the pilot Farmwatch scheme to be set up in Cilcain, in partnership with the Young Farmers. There was a lot of interest amongst our members from the outset as a lot of the clubs members are farmer’s sons and daughters. We have appointed co-ordinators for the different areas around the village and we have contacted local farmers to get them involved in the new scheme. I think the scheme will bring our farming community even closer and hopefully will prevent future crime on our farms” Gwen Davies, Business Development Manager for NFU says “The NFU is very supportive of the farmwatch scheme. We hope that the datatag initiative will act as a deterrent to thieves operating in rural areas and assist the police in the recovery of stolen farm equipment. The NFU welcomes any such initiative that helps stamp out crime in rural areas.” PC Gary Aldous says “…. I am pleased to be part of this initiative and Farmwatch will be very useful in the rural areas I cover” Jackie Lee, Project Administrator for Flintshire Neighbourhood Watch Association says ‘ I would strongly urge farmers to join the Farmwatch scheme. Being a member has many benefits, including being provided with Farmwatch signage and crime prevention information specific to the Farming Community and other general crime prevention advice as farmers are ‘householders’ too. Flinsthire Neighbourhood Watch is also piloting Online Watch Scheme (OWL). This will be launched in the near future. This will be very beneficial to farmers as messages of suspicious incidents can be reported to their members instantaneously, ’. |
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