Lyneham and Rural Villages Message & Priorities update
Message from PC Steve Porter, Community Beat Manager

Repatriations
The past 2 months have continued to provide us with a steady supply of incidents and issues throughout the rural villages surrounding Wootton Bassett. Ongoing Repatriations from RAF Lyneham, continue, unfortunately on a more regular basis. As part of the escort involved with the entourage, the increasing numbers of villagers now lining the route through Lyneham is very moving. I’m sure, like in Wootton Bassett it is comforting to the families to see the mark of respect shown by the village.

Bomb Scare
The recent bomb scare at RAF Lyneham seemed to make all the news channels and caused major disruption to the A3102 through Lyneham as well as residents and shops evacuated as a precaution. Fortunately this turned out to be a false alarm and eventually everyone was able to return to their homes.

RAF Lyneham Families Day
The Families day at RAF Lyneham was well attended, no doubt due to the good weather and the fact that the event had moved to a weekend. It was nice to see so many people; both adults and children visit us at the NPT display. We lost count of the amount of times the blues and two were activated on the vehicles and the amount of people locked in the prison van, happy to say all were later released. A good time was had by all, hopefully we will see you again next year.

Halloween and Bonfire Night
School summer holidays have now been and gone, relatively unscathed compared to past years.  We now move onto the next busy time of the year, Halloween and Bonfire night. Once again their will be an enhanced police presence within all villages to deter anti social behaviour and to prevent the fear of crime. Hopefully people will be able to take part and enjoy themselves without causing harassment to others.

Please contact us with any concerns that you may have and I look forward to continuing our work in your area. At present we have 2 priorities which we are actively targeting:

Priority 1
After the apparent success of targeting anti social behaviour within the play parks of Lyneham and Bradenstoke it has been decided to continue in this manner, however our attention will now be to target youths congregating outside the local shops and take-aways in Lyneham. Over the summer holidays there have been numerous reports of groups of youths gathering at these locations, causing alarm, harassment and distress to both customers and residents near by. The local NPT are working closely with, Ministry of Defence Police, RAF Police the shops and take-aways in deterring the youths from congregating. Initial reaction from the youths has been positive, however some seem to have short memories and require constant reminders.

If you are a parent of a juvenile hanging around in this location, please feel free to have a word in their ear and advise them to use the youth shelter at Slessor Road. This shelter has been put in place for their use and is far enough away from any residential areas to prevent noise and bad language being heard by residents.

Priority 2
Following consultation with local residents it has been agreed to target speeding traffic at Stone Lane, Lydiard Millicent. There have been ongoing issues regarding drivers disregard for the 30 and 40 mph speed restrictions at this particular location. It is for this reason that enforcement of the speed limit should be made a local priority. The local Neighbourhood policing team have been carrying out speed checks at this location and appropriate action has been taken when needed. Unfortunately this is an ongoing problem which we will continue address. It is hoped in the coming weeks to also involve other agencies in targeting speeding motorist on Stone Lane.

Recent crime trends:-
Minor criminal damage / anti social behaviour at Broad Town. Unfortunately problems previously reported at the park in Redhills have now moved further up the village due to the increased police patrols. NPT are targeting certain individuals both from the village and from Wootton Bassett in regards to recent incidents.

Criminal Damage at the Thrift shop and Old NAAFI play park, Lyneham. Recently the window of the Thrift shop was smashed and fencing in the park broken. Unfortunately this has become a gathering area for youths moved from the shop fronts. There is evidence to suggest that alcohol is being consumed by numerous youths, both over and under aged.  Although the park comes within the 9 pm closing remit set by the police and parish council, youths are returning late at night and into the early hours. Positive action will be taken in regards to alcohol seizures, fixed penalties for supplying alcohol and banning orders were relevant.

Beat Clinic
Lyneham has the benefit of having a community police house at Slessor Road where you can normally find either PC Porter, PC Brown or PCSO Singfield. You are more than welcome to drop in and discuss local issues from any of the villages surrounding Wootton Bassett with us. Or you could speak to one of us at the Wootton Bassett Police Station Beat Clinics held at Wootton Bassett police station every Thursday between 1300 and 1500, but changing to 1600-1800 from Thursday 1st October to hopefully give people at work the opportunity to use it. The beat clinic is not for reporting crime and cannot be used for producing driving documents. Dates are published on the Wiltshire Police website.

For all our consultation events please check the Wiltshire police website under Wootton Bassett Rural NPT.
Pc Steve Porter, Pc Jarra Brown (MOD) & PCSO Andy Singfield
Email woottonbassruralnpt@wiltshire.pnn.police.uk

Do you have an event that you feel we would benefit from attending if so please e-mail the dates, times and type of event that you are running to andrew.singfield@wiltshire.pnn.police.uk along with your contact details. While we cannot promise to attend all, we will endeavour to have an input.

Other contact details
Wiltshire Police non emergency number is 0845 408 7000.
If your call is an emergency then call 999.
Visit the new and improved website www.wiltshire.police.uk