To receive an update on rural crime as well as feedback to be taken to the Community Safety and Crime Summit on 17th March.

PC Matt Gleave from Thames Valley Police (TVP) gave a verbal update on rural crime.

From September to December 2022, 23 rural crimes were reported in RBWM, with one location experiencing three offences but had since then seen no incidents. The most common offence was lamping with five recorded in the period. Unfortunately, the offenders were not identified, and the offences were usually discovered and reported until the following day which would then hinder investigations.

There was also one offence of poaching and one residential burglary. The rest of rural crimes were single anomalies and not confirmed as rural crime.

PC Matt Gleave then explained that when a crime was reported, the Neighbourhood Team would offer a security survey and look to target hardened properties and farming machinery. He also then promoted the use of the rural crime WhatsApp group to which PCs had access to. He also mentioned the use of the Rural Crime Taskforce.

PC Matt Gleave then informed that TVP ran an operation on Nick Philp’s farm in July 2022. This involved Nick Philp possessing a police radio to contact the police directly, and then had 6 to 7 PCs in patrol cars in Nick Philp’s land and the wider area over the course of a couple of nights. PC Matt Gleave stated the operation was successful as it increased a police presence in an area where police were not strongly present on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Another operation was conducted in November 2023 where hair coursing usually started. The only incident were 4 offenders around The Wreck in Datchet.

The Rural Crime Taskforce had been reasonably active in the Windsor and Maidenhead area, though acknowledged that there were no dedicated officers in the area. Compared to the last rural crime update, where £800,000 worth of stolen machinery and equipment were seized, this had increased to £1.2 million.

PC Matt Gleave then gave some statistics:

• 404 crime investigations were conducted with 123 positive outcomes.
• 1,600 stop checks
• 66,000 tickets were issued with 46 vehicles seized.
• 181 stop searches with 41 being positive.

In the last three months, there were 2 charges in relation to rural crime in the Windsor and Maidenhead area.

Finally, PC Matt Gleave stated that he was requested to gather feedback from the Forum for the upcoming Community Safety and Crime Summit on 17th March 2023, a summit involving representatives from across the Borough which sought to maintain and improve community safety across the Borough. He then asked if there were any key issues which the Forum would like to be raised at the Summit.

Vice-Chair William Emmett was critical of the rural crime update. He stated that there were pages of incidents posted in a WhatsApp group with many of them not being reported because farmers were losing faith in receiving an answer from the police through the 101-call line. He added that his son-in-law had followed a car without number plates for 4 miles trying to contact the police but received no answer. He added that his farm experienced 6 incidents since Christmas 2022 with several of them reported. He concluded that it was appalling that there was one recorded crime of wildlife. PC Matt Gleave replied that the crime statistics covered from September to December 2022 and therefore did not cover the period after Christmas 2022.

Vice-Chair William Emmett responded that it had “become a fortress” for many farmers from the south of Holyport on Saturdays and Sundays; stating, for example, he had to purchase large concrete poacher blocks to protect his farm. He asserted that the rural community deserved better support than it was currently receiving.

PC Matt Gleave replied that he was aware that the 101-call line did take a while to get a response. Alongside an online webform, he also stated that emergency incidents (i.e., something at risk of damage, someone at risk of being hurt or was happening immediately) should be reported through 999.

Vice-Chair William Emmett stated that farmers needed more visible support from the police at night time. He added that the farming community had lost confidence in the police and that they needed to win back respect from farmers.

While acknowledging the work of the Rural Crime Taskforce, Councillor Cannon commented that they did not seem to be deployed in Berkshire. He stated that the Forum would like to see engagement with the local farmers so they could acquire their fair share of rural policing. PC Matt Gleave replied that he would relay back to TVP to see if regular patrols from Rural Crime Taskforce could be established in the Berkshire area.

After endorsing Councillor Cannon’s comments, Councillor Johnson agreed with Vice-Chair William Emmett’s feedback, stating that the Borough had provided funding to establish additional frontline police resource in the form of warranted officers.

Referring to the operation on his farm in July 2022, Nick Philp stated that he sought a follow-up operation but was unable to contact Colin who ran the operation.

Geoffrey Copas commented that there appeared to be patterns in rural crime activities, namely incidents taking place mostly on weekends, a lack of hare coursing in the Cookham area, the crime hotspot being the Drift Road and usually at around the end of harvest season. He suggested that the police should follow the pattern by placing some focus on the Drift Road.

Vice-Chair William Emmett agreed that there were hotspots, namely in Twyford and the west of Windsor Great Park.

Andrew Durrant stated that the next steps was to relay the feedback and concerns from the Rural Forum to the upcoming Community Safety and Crime Summit. He also suggested that the invite to the Summit could be extended to Forum members.

ACTION: Andrew Durrant to extend the invite to the Community Safety and Crime Summit to Rural Forum members.

ACTION: PC Matt Gleave to forward the feedback from the Rural Forum to the Community Safety and Crime Summit.

PC Matt Gleave reiterated that crime incidents should be reported either through 999 or the online form, alongside the WhatsApp groups, so that the police could be aware on what was going on. He added, for example, that incidents reported on an online form would allow police catalogue and then investigate them.