Crowthorne and Sandhurst

Police are appealing for witnesses after an incident in Sandhurst on 21 May in which a youth exposed himself to a female motorist.

Between 7.10pm and 7.20pm the woman, who is in her thirties, was driving along Sandhurst High Street when she noticed a teenage boy near some shops who was exposing himself.

The youth is white, in his mid teens, about 5ft 4ins, with short mousy hair and a “lop-sided” mouth. He was wearing a grey hooded top, blue tracksuit bottoms and white trainers.

The woman had noticed the youth committing a similar offence in the same location about two weeks previously.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sgt Steve McSweeney or the Sandhurst neighbourhood specialist officer, PC Gary Campion, on 0845 8 505 505. If you don’t want to speak to police or give your name, please call the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

Thames Valley Police ~ Sandhurst

The Karten CTEC Centre Crowthorne has reason to celebrate on May 22, with its Celebration of Achievement event.

The Karten Centre provides computer-aided training and education for people with disabilities. The centre is run in partnership by charity Norwood and Wokingham Borough Council and is based at Ravenswood Village in Crowthorne.

The Crowthorne event kicks off at 2pm with a certificate presentation ceremony for 40 students, who have completed training courses such as OCR CLAIT and National Open College Network Opening Doors to ICT. The ceremony will be hosted by Rod Clay, director of Ravenswood Village, and Wokingham Borough mayor Cllr Annette Drake will present the students with their certificates.

Ravenswood Village is a Crowthorne residential community owned by Norwood, a leading UK charity that supports children and families with learning disabilities, or coping with social difficulties. Residents of Ravenswood Village and adults with disabilities from the local community attend courses at the centre. It was established by Ian Karten, MBE, in 1997 to provide computer-led education for disabled people, people with special needs and people with learning disabilities.

Wokingham Borough Council ~ Crowthorne

The Second Crowthorne Hawks Cub Pack have been getting their hands dirty by helping The Rowans Children's Centre set up an edible garden.

The Crowthorne cubs worked hard over two evenings at the Bracknell Forest Borough Council run centre digging in more than a tonne of compost kindly donated by Short Agricultural Services and Dobbies Groveland Garden Centre. The centre will be making its own compost for the future from a Council donated composter.

The Crowthorne cubs then planted cauliflowers, salad leaves, onions, tomatoes and many more plants that will be grown for use in the centre's kitchen, thanks to the kind generosity of Longacres Garden Centre.

Cath Lowther, Rowans Children's Centre manager, said: "The Rowans runs cooking sessions to encourage healthy eating in families with children under five.

"I gratefully thank the Second Crowthorne Hawks Cub Pack for all of their wonderful help in creating this vegetable garden."

After gardening, the cubs donated a Rowan tree which they planted in front of the centre.

For their contribution, the cubs will be awarded a badge for service to the community. The garden has also been entered in the Bracknell Flowers Your Gardens competition.

Sharon Teideman, Akela for the pack, said: "The cubs had a fantastic time. They really enjoyed getting involved and having the opportunity to get dirty and physical lugging about the compost, digging holes and planting things that will grow and be eaten."

Cllr Dr Gareth Barnard, Executive Member for Children's Services, said: "By having our children's centres teach families how to cook healthy food, we are helping to tackle childhood obesity.

"The children's centres in the borough provide excellent modern facilities that are proving to be invaluable to the community and I encourage all families to discover what services and support they can offer you."

Bracknell Forest Borough Council ~ Crowthorne

James Brooking moved to Crowthorne in 1974 to take up a position in the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (now TRL) and has lived in Hinton Close since then. His children went to Hatch Ride and then Edgbarrow Schools.

James set up his own Accident and Automotive Consultancy in 2000 and carries out investigations for solicitors, insurance companies and manufacturers. Some cases have reached national headlines such as the investigation into Robert Dunlops crash in the TT motorcycle races which was uniquely videoed by a spectator and a fatal injury incident in a distribution depot in Basingstoke.

James primary interests are in traffic incident investigation for civil and criminal cases and to further his knowledge completed a Masters Degree in Accident Investigation Studies on a workbased course at Middlesex University and funded his own test program into cycle to car collisions on the TRL track.

Investigations are carried out all over the United Kingdom and James is used to giving evidence in Civil and Criminal Courts. In recent cases for Trading Standards that have gone to trial traders have pleaded guilty probably persuaded by the detail and accuracy of James reports.

The proprietor of a vehicle hire company tried to have James arrested for theft of wheels as he removed them for inspection of the brakes on a people carrier. The police had other thoughts when James pointed out there were no brake pads in a front wheel ! Other investigations relate to classic cars such as Porsche and Aston Martin. In October 2007 James was asked by the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States to inspect a fleet of vehicles in Nigeria.

When his son (also James) wanted to learn to drive although able to do so as a parent decided to qualify as a Driving Instructor to ensure that the tuition he gave was up to date and accurate not only so that he passed the driving test but was a safe driver. Since then as a driving Instructor in the Crowthorne area he has a number of tests passes to his credit.

Contact for traffic accident investigation would normally be through legal representatives.

James Brooking 33 Hinton Close Crowthorne RG45 6LA Tel 01344 774556 email j_brooking.motorwiz@tiscali.co.uk

When I first started working at Crowthorne police station nearly three years ago, I worked with three police officers and two newly recruited PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers). My current team has expanded considerably with the arrival of neighbourhood policing and now consists of Neighbourhood Specialist Officers Gary Campion (who covers Sandhurst and Little Sandhurst), Amanda Price (Owlsmoor and College Town), Neighbourhood Officers Justin Barton (Owlsmoor and College Town), and Steve Botwright (Crowthorne).

My PCSOs are Ivana Houska (Crowthorne), Rebecca Swann (Sandhurst and Little Sandhurst), Katherine Bullen and Alistair Willcocks (both Owlsmoor and College Town). Also stationed at Crowthorne on a temporary basis are two student officers under training, who will shortly be transferring to response (shift) work at Bracknell and a PCSO under training, again who will eventually work from Bracknell.

We can all be contacted on the main 0845 8 505 505 police non emergency number, or by calling in at Crowthorne police station or the Sandhurst police point.

Crowthorne police station is open 9am to 1pm Monday to Thursday, Wednesday evenings and most Saturday mornings. Sandhurst police point (adjacent to the Sandhurst Town Council offices in the Memorial Park) is open 10am to 2pm Monday to Friday, plus Monday evenings and some afternoons. Details of opening hours are shown on the entrance door.

During these times, the front desks at Crowthorne and Sandhurst are manned by volunteers, who provide an excellent service for callers. We are always looking for more volunteers and if you feel you could assist with this role please contact me or call in and speak to a volunteer directly. Full training, as they say, will be given!

As well as dealing with calls from members of the public (assaults, shop theft, road collisions and the like) we deal with issues which have been raised by the public as neighbourhood priorities. These are currently speeding and anti-social behaviour. We carry out weekly speed enforcement checks across the area. We have also had considerable success in many areas in dealing with anti-social behaviour. As always there is more to be done so if you suffer from either of these issues please contact me.

Thames Valley Police ~ Crowthorne and Sandhurst

A Crowthorne Indian restaurant is to pay £5,000 in fines and costs after substituting spirits with cheaper brands and serving watered down vodka.

Khalid Miah, a director of Chillies Restaurant, in Dukes Ride, Crowthorne, appeared in Bracknell Magistrates’ Court on April 16 and pleaded not guilty to four offences under the Food Safety Act.

It follows a routine visit by trading standards officers on October 25, 2006, who carried out checks on the spirits. They found Bells scotch whisky had been substituted with the MacAndrews brand, Gordons Gin was actually Grosvenor Gin, and Smirnoff vodka was Chekov vodka.

They also found the vodka had been topped up with more than 22 per cent of water.

Chillies was found guilty and was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £3,000 costs.

Rob Sexton, Head of Trading Standards and Services, said: The substitution of branded spirits for cheaper spirits misleads customers and provides an economic advantage for the business concerned.

"We are hopeful that the fines imposed by the court will discourage other businesses from using such practices."

Cllr Iain McCracken, Executive Member for Crowthorne Public Protection, said: "It is unacceptable for restaurants to serve customers with cheaper brands and charge higher prices.

”The Council will continue to carry out routine tests at other restaurants in the borough to make sure customers are getting a fair deal.”

Bracknell Forest Borough Council