WELL DONE EVERYONE – NO CRIME TO REPORT IN THE LAST 48 HOURS !!!
NO BURGLARIES
AND
NO CARS BROKEN INTO NOR STOLEN
RESIDENTS ARE OBVIOUSLY DOING ALL THE RIGHT THINGS !
FIRST: We are coming to the end of the ‘Summer Burglary campaign’ – doors and windows left open in the heat for ventilation !
We are now starting the ‘Winter Burglary Campaign’ – Houses in darkness when no-one is home. The evenings are drawing in very quickly and it is now dark at 8.30 p.m. If you are not going to be at home when it is dark, you must make sure your home looks occupied and does not stand out from other houses in your road which are.
We do not have any ‘professional’ burglars in RBWM who specifically target properties - unless - you live in a multi-million pound home and have a valuable collection of silver, antiques, porcelain, paintings, clocks – or - very valuable jewellery / gold jewellery. We have ‘Opportunist Thieves’, who simply walk along roads 7 days a week, looking for someone who has made a mistake and left a window open, or easy access to the rear of the property. A driveway gate left open and no car on the driveway. If we are careful and do not stand out as the easiest opportunity in the road – we should be safe and not targeted.
We recommend the following items:
Door Wedge Alarm – This is a door wedge which is placed behind doors. If a door is opened, it depresses the metal top, which makes contact and sets of an 110 dbs alarm ! It also has a specifically rough base, which wedges against the floor and prevents the door from opening further.
Door Handle Alarm. This alarm hangs on door handles and has a trembler mechanism inside. If the door is moved, once the alarm is activated it sounds at 110 dbs
Shed Alarm. These need no fixing and can stand on a shelf at the back of a garage / shed. Battery operated, with a PIR heat and motion centre. Fobbed on as you close the door and you have 5 seconds to fob it off, when you open the door. It again sounds at 110 dbs. It is also perfect for the back of vans containing tools, which are rarely alarmed. Or in your home, if you don’t have a burglar alarm. Place it behind front / rear door when you go to be / go out and fob it on. These are generally available from online retailers – 2 for £12.
Get a Burglar Alarm. These are now affordable, due to modern technology. They are simple and easy to fit. No wiring necessary to disrupt your interior decoration. They are wireless, pet sensitive, can be placed facing vulnerable patio doors (previously a problem because of reflection) and imply fob on and off – rather than having to insert completed codes. They are also zoned, so that you can set the ground floor when you go up to bed at night. THEY MUST BE SET EVERY TIME YOU LEAVE THE PROPERTY AND THE GROUND FLOOR AT NIGHT !
Dummy Alarm Box. Our Opportunist Thieves know nothing about alarm systems. If you don’t have a burglar alarm, but everyone else in your road does – put up a dummy box
Window Shock Alarms. These are very inexpensive, are battery operated and stick to windows with double sided tape. They work on a pressure wave principal. If anyone bashes a window to break it, it sends a pressure wave through the house setting these off – at 110 dbs
Video doorbells. These are replacing Burglar Alarms & CCTV – but you do need good and powerful Wi Fi.
The doorbell records 24 hours a day, whenever the beam is broken – not just when the bell is pressed.
You can talk to parcel delivery drivers / anyone on your property, in real time, from anywhere in the world.
You can be authorised to receive the footage from other people’s video doorbells, such as elderly relatives.
Additional cameras can be added, inside and perhaps at the rear of the property. People use the internal cameras to monitor pets / elderly relatives.
You can have video footage, directed to mobile phones / Smart TVs / digital photo albums.
You can have alarms to wake you up, if anyone breaches the beam in the early hours.
You can shout at anyone on the property illegally through the doorbell - ‘the police have been called’, ‘the video footage has been downloaded’ – ‘get off my drive’.
You can receive the videos to your phone, while you are on holiday / anywhere in the world. The footage can be sent directly to the police as it is happening
Fake TV. These are small multi coloured LED light boxes to place in upstairs front facing rooms. They come with on off and two settings – Winter / Summer. They have a dusk to dawn sensor and come on in the summer at dusk for four hours and in the winter they stay on for seven hours. So – plug in and leave. Once on, they flicker around curtains – even if they are drawnThey cost almost nothing to run, as they are LEDs – again available from online retailers for about £19
Side lights set on timers
A talk radio station left on if you are out. If the Opportunist Thief lifts the letterbox to listen to what is happening in the house – they hear talking.
Leave house lights on if you are not going to be home. What lights do you leave on ? Simple. On a normal night when the house is fully occupied, go outside and have a look. That is how your house must look if it is dark and you are not at home !
Polish all door locks and make sure you have adequate locks on side gates / garages and garden sheds. Keep them polished, to show you are security aware.
Join or set up your own NHW scheme.
Thames Valley Alert. Make sure all your neighbours are registered to receive Thames Valley Alerts !! If everyone protects their properties, it makes it less likely, the opportunists will target your roads.
All simple measures, which take very little thought. All the items are available from our online retailers at very reasonable prices – You know it makes sense to protect you, your family, your home and your possessions. We want as few victims as possible, as Burglary is often really traumatic. Doing these simple things, should make you safe. Our Opportunist Thieves are always looking for the easiest, quickest and simplest way to steal from you. Make it as difficult as possible
NEXT: Update on waste collections from RBWM
We are pleased to advise that a resolution has been reached between waste contractor Serco and the GMB union and that further industrial action by waste collection operatives in the union has been suspended.
However, there have been significant disruption and delays due to today’s action which has meant we have been unable to complete any of the refuse, recycling and food waste collections that were planned.
What you need to do:
From Thursday 1 September refuse, recycling and food waste collections will resume as normal. Please remember that because of the Bank Holiday, collections are still a day later than usual and changes to collection days are available on our Holiday waste collection dates webpage
For those whose bins were due to be collected Wednesday 31 August, these won’t have been collected so please leave these out and we will collect these by the end of Sunday. However, please do not put out your recycling bin for collection if you live in one of the streets listed on our waste and recycling crew strike webpage
If you do live in one of these streets, still put out your refuse and food waste, but please don’t put out your recycling bin until Tuesday 6 September – your regular collection day – and we will collect it then.
What you need to know
The Stafferton Way Household Waste and Recycling Centre in Maidenhead will reopen tomorrow as normal
Garden waste collections will remain suspended until the end of this Friday to enable us to catch up on other collections. However, garden waste subscriptions will be extended to cover the time when collections are suspended
Please ensure all your waste and recycling is contained within your bins.
Thank you for your ongoing patience.
NEXT: Grants available for not-for-profit voluntary organisations in Royal Borough
We're inviting not-for-profit voluntary organisations to apply for grants for community projects and activities that make a positive difference within their neighbourhoods.
Eligible organisations have until Friday 30 September to apply for a share of funding totalling nearly £91,000 across two separate categories, through the council’s Annual Grants Funding Scheme.
Capital funding totalling £75,000 is available towards capital projects, such as buying land, the acquisition, construction or improvement of buildings, and/or the purchase of equipment to provide new or improved facilities.
In addition, the council is inviting applications for a share of £15,940 from the Kidwells Park Trust, of which the council is trustee. Kidwells grants are available to assist in providing facilities for recreation and other leisure time occupation for the benefit of residents of the borough.
NEXT: Electoral registration annual canvass: Ensure you’re registered to vote
Our Electoral Services team has just started our annual canvass, with emails being sent to residents across the Royal Borough in the last week.
For residents or properties where we do not have emails, you will receive your initial paper forms by letter from 8 September. The annual canvass is undertaken to determine which residents should be registered to vote at each address. This information is used to update the electoral register for 2023 when we have Borough and Parish council elections in May.
If you are a resident for whom we have an email address you should have received an email. To record your response please visit the Register Securely website and check the register details for your household. The emails will have been sent from
electoral.registration.rb.windsor.and.maidenhead@notifications.service.gov.uk.
Where possible, we are encouraging residents to confirm their details online using the information sent to them, rather than posting paper forms back to us, as this is the quickest and easiest way to update the details for your household, and it’s more environmentally friendly too.
For more information, visit our website, call 01628 683868, or email
electoral.registration@rbwm.gov.uk.
A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY: – Monday 5th September, Maidenhead Town Forum, Council Chamber, Council offices 6.30 p.m. If you cannot attend personally, you can watch all Borough Council meetings live at:
ttps://www.youtube.com/user/WindsorMaidenhead
For more information about the Forum and the Agenda, go to:
https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=157&MId=8175&Ver=4CRIME
I have attached reference numbers to each crime report. If you live in the vicinity of any of the crimes mentioned and have CCTV or a video doorbell, can you please check the footage. If you have any that might be of interest to the police, can you please make contact with us, quoting reference number given.
Alternatively you can call 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or email -
www.crimestoppers-uk.orgMAIDENHEAD CENTRAL:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
RIVERSIDE & BELMONT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
MAIDENHEAD WEST
BISHAM, COOKHAM, HURLEY, THE WALTHAMS, LITTLEWICK GREEN & KNOWL HILL:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
PINKNEYS GREEN & FURZE PLATT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
MAIDENHEAD SOUTH
BOYN HILL, COX GREEN & WOODLANDS PARK
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
OLDFIELD, BRAY & HOLYPORT:
NO CRIME TO REPORT.
