Calls for roaming CCTV at thefts-hit allotments
A SPATE of minor thefts from an allotments and suspicious vehicles thought to be on the hunt for scrap metal have prompted a call for a mobile CCTV camera to be brought to the site.
Plot-holders at the De Verdon Road site have reported a number of minor thefts from the allotments in recent weeks, with tools, a wheelbarrow and, on one occasion, an entire bench being stolen.
Vehicles have also been seen parked near the site and plot- holders think the suspicious-looking vehicle-occupants were on the hunt for scrap metal.
The issue came to light at a Lutterworth Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening.
Lutterworth county councillor Rosita Page urged the town council to request the Harborough district Community Safety Partnership to install a mobile CCTV camera near the allotments in a bid to deter thieves or even catch them in the act.
The safety partnership owns one such camera which has been used in the past to help combat anti-social behaviour elsewhere in the district.
Cllr Page added: “The equipment is there if it is needed.
“People need to report the thefts and make enough noise as that will then make them take notice of where the camera should be deployed.”
Town council clerk Hannah Surtees said plot-holders havebeen urged to contact police in the future if any more suspicious vehicles are seen and they have also been advised to buy alarmed padlocks for their property. She added that a number of allotment holders had requested that individual keys be handed out so the site could be made more secure – at present it is unlocked in the morning and left open all day until it is locked again in the evening.
Mrs Surtees said: “This could cause problems as there are 80-plus allotment holders and we would quickly lose control of the situation if they were all given individual keys.”
Town mayor Tony Hirons added that managing 80 individual keys could end up being’ a disaster’.
Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to phone Lutterworth Police on the 101 hotline.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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