Crowthorne and Sandhurst

As the Neighbourhood Specialist Officer for Owlsmoor and College Town, Sandhurst I am responsible for representing Thames Valley Police in that area. I work closely with partner agencies such as the local council, housing and education authority.

At the beginning of this year, Bracknell Forest Council delivered leaflets to every household in the Sandhurst area requesting your opinion about what you feel the local police and council should be concentrating on. The results of this survey showed that the residents of Owlsmoor and College Town wanted parking to be at the top of the agenda, closely followed by speeding and environmental issues.

These priorities were discussed at the Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) and a strategy was formulated about how each partner agency could play a part in reducing the problems. In line with this strategy, the local policing team made up of myself, PC Campion, PC Barton and PCSOs Willcocks, Bullen and Swann, have taken action.

We have issued a number of parking tickets, especially on Park Road in Sandhurst where there are regular complaints. We have also adopted a problem-solving approach whereby officers conduct checks on the offending vehicles, locate the owners and request they move to a more suitable location. We believe that advising drivers about the hazards of dangerous and inconsiderate parking very often has the desired effect. However, where repeat offenders emerge we are robust and issue tickets when necessary.

Following a request from NAG members, neighbourhood officers have carried out speed enforcement in College Road Sandhurst, Yeovil Road, Crowthorne Road and Yorktown Road. Officers from the Roads Policing department have been working hard in the area to reduce vehicle-related crime. During an ANPR operation (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) on the Yorktown Road in Sandhurst on 7 July, one vehicle was searched for drugs and two vehicles were seized by police as the drivers did not hold insurance.

On 3 April I accompanied Councillors Tony Blair and Bob Edger around the Owlsmoor/College Town Sandhurst area to conduct an environmental audit. During the audit we identified several cases of graffiti and fly tipping. These were all logged and reported to the borough council. A follow up audit will take place later in the year to evaluate whether or not the problems have been rectified.

PCSO Willcocks will be holding a beat surgery outside the Yeovil Road shops on Thursday 21 August between 1pm and 3pm, which all are welcome to attend. This is an opportunity to have your say and raise any concerns.

The neighbourhood policing team can be contacted via the single non-emergency number: 0845 8 505 505.

Thames Valley Police - Sandhurst

Thames Valley Police stopped 35 drivers as part of a road safety check in Sandhurst on 24/7.

Officers from the Taplow Roads Policing Department, alongside Road Safety Constable Bob Wade, working as part of the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, carried out the check between 8am and 10am on the Yorktown Road, Sandhurst.

The check was carried out as part of the on-going effort to reduce casualties on the roads in East Berkshire and looked at all aspects of road safety, including the vehicle, the occupants of the vehicle and driver documentation.

32 people were given Fixed Penalty Notices of £30 for not wearing their seatbelts and two drivers were fined £60 with three penalty points for using their mobile phone while driving. One driver had his car seized and was fined £200 with six penalty points for driving without insurance.

Sandhurst PC Bob Wade, who organised the check, said: “The seatbelt message is quite clear and all those stopped know it is againt the road traffic act not to wear a seatbelt. It is quite simple, seatbelts can save lives and prevent serious injuries and those who continue to flout the seatbelt law will be caught and fined.”

Thames Valley Police ~ Sandhurst

Crowthorne Carnival got to grips with the Hands-on-Arts Pavilion last weekend – when Wokingham Borough’s Cultural Partnership joined in the carnival for the very first time as part of Discover Culture 2008.

This year’s Discover Culture festival, which is the borough’s fourth, seeks to enhance and support existing community events to create a summer season of arts for the Wokingham Borough’s residents. Crowthorne, half of whose residents live in Wokingham Borough and half in Bracknell Forest, played host to the Discover Culture activities for the first time this year as part of its carnival celebrations.

The Hands-on-the-Arts pavilion gave more than three hundred carnival-goers the chance to take part in artist-led workshops. Opportunities on offer included felt making, puppet-making and print-making.

Gwynneth Hewetson, chairman of the Cultural Partnership, said: “This summer season offers opportunities for everyone to participate in arts activities and has proven to be a wonderful showcase for the arts. It also shows how, through Discover Culture, the Cultural Partnership is working with community groups, neighbouring councils and other organisations to enhance the lives of all residents.”

The Wokingham Borough Cultural Partnership is a volunteer-led group that champions arts, sports, heritage and leisure for all ages and is supported by Wokingham Borough Council, local businesses and charities, and the Arts Council England South East.

Wokingham Borough Council ~ Crowthorne

A new café bar and multi-activity space has now been opened at Edgbarrow Sports Centre in Crowthorne.

The new Crowthorne facility, called Time Out, was a complete refurbishment of the centre’s old bar. It is now a bright and modern room which opens into the main reception area and overlooks the centre’s garden.

It will be serving hot and cold drinks and snacks and has flat screen televisions and a projector screen where visitors can watch live sporting events.

The room can also be divided in two, which gives the sports centre an additional room which can be used for conferences, meetings, or training courses. The additional space can also double up for activity classes such as yoga, pilates or martial arts.

Cllr Iain McCracken, Executive Member for Crowthorne Leisure, said: ”Our Edgbarrow Sports Centre, in the heart of Crowthorne, has always offered a wide range of different services and facilities and is well worth a visit particularly now with the welcome addition of the new Time Out Café Bar which brings with it a modern feel to this popular facility.”

For more details on the Time Out Café Bar at Edgbarrow Sports Centre, Crowthorne call 01344 776211

Bracknell Forest Council ~ Crowthorne

PACT are opening a Family Centre adjacent to Crowthorne CofE School, Dukes Ride and are currently looking for volunteers to help run the sessions.

We aim at providing services for the whole family from new parents through to grandparents. We are looking for volunteers with a range of skills from gardening, story telling to administrators.

Contact details for further details on this new exciting Crowthorne project are:
Simone Prendiville
Freephone: 0800 7311845
Email: family@pactcharity.org
Or post an application request to Simone at PACT, Freepost SCE 6005, Reading RG1 4ZR
7 Southern Court, South Street, Reading, RG1 4QS. Tel: 0118 938 7600

A programme of activities to keep teenagers in Crowthorne occupied during the long summer holidays is now taking bookings. Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Ivana Houska has been working with various local organisations for several months to put the Crowthorne Summer 08 programme together.

Ivana said: “Our aim is to get as many young people as possible to do a range of different activities during the main five weeks of the summer holidays (28 July to 29 August). This will give young people something constructive to spend their time and energy on and help to prevent anti-social behaviour. Some of the events which will be taking place are mountain bike riding, swimming, mountain boarding, camping, orienteering, bowling, raft building at Horseshoe Lakes, film nights and many more.

“Many of the activities are very cheap or even free. Booking forms are being sent to pupils at their schools and are also available at Crowthorne police station. Places on some of the activities are limited, so we are asking everyone to return their completed forms, together with any payments, to the front counter at Crowthorne police station by Friday 11 July.

“This project supports the work being done by the Crowthorne Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG), which consists of local people tackling quality of life issues in the community.

“Our sponsors include: Bracknell Extended Services, Crowthorne Parish Council, Crowthorne Rotary Club, Edgbarrow Community Funds, Edgbarrow School, HOPE 08, South Hill Arts Centre and Thames Valley Police.

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone in advance for making Crowthorne Summer 08 possible, and to say how much I appreciate the amount of hard work, money and time that has been donated.

“I hope that our summer holiday period will be an enjoyable one!”

Thames Valley Police ~ Crowthorne

A Sandhurst police officer who is afraid of heights will be taking part in a parachute jump for the first time to raise money for charity.

PC Justin Barton, neighbourhood officer for Owlsmoor and Sandhurst College Town, plans to complete a tandem sky dive on Saturday 9 August at the Netheravon Airfield near Salisbury, Wiltshire. He is seeking sponsorship in order to raise funds for the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, where a friend is currently receiving treatment for cancer.

Justin said: “The jump is only five weeks away and I need to raise as much awareness as possible. To make things worse, I really hate heights, so it’s a bit of a challenge. The jump starts at about 12,500ft in the air and we freefall for about 45 seconds before the parachute is deployed. The closer it’s getting, the more nervous I am!

“As this is the first – and probably the last – time I’ll do a thing like this, the jump will be filmed in the air by another sky diver.”

If you would like to sponsor Justin, there is a web page where people can donate on line, which is www.justgiving.com/i-hate-heights or alternatively, there will be sponsorship forms available to sign at Crowthorne police station, the Sandhurst police point and Bracknell police station.

Thames Valley Police ~ Sandhurst