Category Archives: General

December Police Newsletter SRRA

Please see below Inspector Rob Bryan’s police newsletter in full.  We hope you find this of interest.

Dear reader,
After last month’s circular, I received a lot of positive feedback about how hard the local police officers and PCSOs are working. Thanks very much for that feedback. I will return to the theme of highlighting all their good work every few months. Today I will just mention PCSO Paul Brighton who covers West Ruislip ward. Because of his hard work and dedication (he is the one you see out on the pushbike all the time) he has won a Hillingdon Police Excellence Award. He will be awarded this by the Borough Commander later in the month. Well done Paul.
Last month I also raised a topic about doing my best to squash rumours that you often hear from a friend of a friend. I offered to look into any grapevine rumours and provide the facts. I received no requests all month. A cynical person might assume that gossip is more interesting than fact! But I will take it to mean there are no wild stories currently circulating that require a correction.
Crime figures:
There have been stories on the news recently about police under recording crimes so I thought you would like to know the facts as I see them.
Violence with injury (GBH, ABH and robbery) have seen a 20%+ increase across London and the UK. This is primarily due to a change in recording standards. In the past, if we were called to a pub fight and it was all quiet on our arrival, no crime was recorded. That was contrary to the National Crime Recording Standards and we have now corrected that error. From what I see, police in Hillingdon are extremely ethical in how crime is recorded. Stats from the London Ambulance Service and hospitals show a reduction in persons they see as a result of violence. Nevertheless we cannot just put this increase in violent crimes down to changes in the way we record crime – those acts of violence have always been there, just not recorded. I can reassure you that this issue has been gripped at the highest level and extra resources are being put into combating violence. The London-wide plan is called Operation Equinox and involves increased late night patrols in town centres, more licensing visits and test purchases and increased proactivity in arresting those who commit acts of violence.
Burglary has also seen an increase in the north of the Borough. At this time of year when the clocks change, opportunist burglars do strike. The spike we are seeing is bigger than previous spikes, but I also want to reassure you that it is not an epidemic. Ironically even with this spike, because of low numbers earlier in the year, Hillingdon may still see a decrease in burglaries compared to last year. Operation Bumblebee runs each year to combat this spike. In the north that includes cocooning (visiting addresses around a burglary to provide crime prevention and seek out leads), additional resources from the Borough Tasking Team and TSG and proactive targeting of suspected offenders. I would ask that you circulate the crime prevention advice below as widely as possible.
Crime Prevention advice:    
A third of residential burglaries show no signs of forced entry suggesting either a door or windows were not properly secured. The following tips, if followed by everyone, would make it so much harder for burglars to operate in our area:
Don’t leave your keys within easy reach of doors, letterboxes or windows (the burglar can fish them out with a coat hanger).Close and lock all doors and windows. If you have multi-locking door handles, lift the handle, lock it with the key and remove it. Remember – LIFT – LOCK – REMOVE. Put the key in a safe place out of sight in case of fire (This should be done when you go to bed too, not just when you go out. Entry via improperly locked doors counts for a high proportion of our break-ins). Lock garages and sheds so garden tools and ladders can’t be used to break into your home and keep side gates locked. Use timer switches linked to lights and a radio so it appears that someone is at home (that extra hour of darkness since the clocks changed makes it very easy to spot which house is empty). Install a visible intruder alarm system  burglars don’t want to be seen or heard. Keep side and rear boundaries high to restrict access and front boundaries low to remove hiding places. Photograph and mark valuables and sentimental items with your postcode and house number. Register items with serial numbers at: www.immobilise.com
If you want to be removed from my Distribution List please let me know via the Reply button. 
Yours,
Inspector Rob Bryan
North Cluster
Hillingdon Borough
( 020 8246 1816 | ( 07500097182 | 8 robert.bryan@met.pnn.police.uk+ Ruislip Police Station, The Oaks, HA4 7LE
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
 
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Email XHMailbox.partnership@met.police.uk to register for crime prevention advice

 

Flower Festival at St Mary’s Church for Remembrance

‘LEST WE FORGET’

Flower Festival

  31st October to 2nd November

The St Mary’s Church, The Fairway, South Ruislip will be open on all 3 days with displays commemorating the 1st World War and Saints. Admission price £2.

Refreshments will be available throughout the weekend together with a programme of music.

 On Friday evening from 6-8pm there will be a children’s party with a theme of Saints and Heroes.

Please contact info@stmarychurchruislip.co.uk for more details or to book a ticket.

 On  Saturday afternoon stalls selling Christmas gifts, cakes, sweets, refreshments

 together with face painting and other activities will be in the Church Hall.

On Sunday after our morning service there is the opportunity to plant a British Legion Poppy Cross in our Garden of Remembrance

in memory of a loved one. These will be sold at £3 to raise money for the Poppy Appeal.

Friday 10am – 8pm

Saturday Noon -7pm

Sunday 11.30am-6pm

Comments turned off – sorry :-(

I like the idea of an open an interactive site but I can’t moderate the flow of spam comments I’m getting on the site so have turned off comments for the time being.

126 spam comments at the moment and I don’t have time to check in case something real is in there.

If you want to comment on an article or something affecting South Ruislip please email us or pop over  to the Facebook page, just search for us under South Ruislip Residents Association.

SRRA on facebook
SRRA on facebook

 

HS2 Update

An artist's impression of part of the proposed HS2 routeHS2 is currently being debated in parliament.  Even though there is strong opposition to it and it has been flagged up as a red/amber risk as to whether it will provide value for money by the parliamentary watchdog, there is a strong feeling that it may still be pushed through.

We have to be prepared for this eventuality, so whilst we remain resolutely opposed to the project we need to try to mitigate its effects locally.

The rail link through South Ruislip is currently planned to be in a tunnel which reduces much of the blight that would have been experienced by an over ground option.  What many in the area may not be aware of is that to enable the tunnel to proceed a number of major works must be carried out to the local services such as sewerage and water systems.

These works will create major disruption for long periods of time. They will be mainly centred on West End Road, Station Approach, Long Drive, the green area adjacent to Bridgwater Road and Victoria Road. The Victoria Road effect will be from the construction of a vent shaft behind the old Focus building.

A petition process was announced by HS2 which gives individuals, associations and businesses the right to petition parliament to seek ways to mitigate the local disruption.

SRRA has submitted a petition on the residents behalf and while we clearly stated that we remain opposed to the project we requested that when these works were carried out they must not be scheduled simultaneously, access to shops, businesses and residential properties must be available at all times etc.  We received a great deal of help from the council’s personnel in ensuring that our petition was presented in the correct format and for that we thank them for their assistance.   A copy of the mandate signed by committee members following the AGM and the petition are on the website.  [Ed: Clicking on the links will download the documents in Word format to your browsing device].

Author:  Sid Jackson