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CRIME in the Bishop's Waltham district has reduced over the last year, but drug offences have doubled and road accidents are still high.

The area's crime figures were broken down at the annual parish meeting last Tuesday night (April 22).

Parish council chairman, Cllr David McLean emphasised that the community wanted the culprit of vandalism at the Priory Park play area caught soon.

The metal cable of the aerial runway was cut recently and the parish council has offered a £300 reward for information leading to a conviction for the offence.

Also, last year broken glass was glued to a slide and embedded in a goalmouth.

Cllr McLean said: "When you get to the stage where someone is prepared to cut the cable (of the aerial runway), if they hadn't cut right through and someone used it or fallen, it could have severely injured or killed someone. It has gone beyond a joke, and gluing glass to a slide and embedding it in a goalmouth, the sort of person who does that needs a police resource."

Sargent Andy Heward is in charge of the Meon Valley Safer Neighbourhoods team and is based at Meon Valley police station, in Bishop's Waltham.

He revealed that in Bishop's Waltham over the last 12 months to March there were 86 incidents and one third were crimes.

Sgt Heward said there were: 43 arsons, 31 assaults and eight burglaries, which was the same as the previous year, and two reports of door step conmen.

There were 19 other burglaries, which covered shed break-ins, outbuildings and commercial buildings, which accounted for around two thirds of these types of crime Sgt Heward said.

There were 67 incidents of criminal damage and 40 per cent of these crimes were tyre slashings.

Disputes involving neighbours or domestic incidents totalled 36 and there were 18 drug offences, all cannabis warnings, which had doubled in the last year Sgt Heward said.

Fraud crimes in the area had gone down, he added.

Nine people were arrested for drink driving in Bishop's Waltham and there had been 19 incidents of making off without payment from petrol stations.

Public order offences totalled 11 and road traffic incidents were quite high Sgt Heward said, at 41.

Sgt Heward said: "The biggest thing the Safer Neighbourhoods Team deal with is rowdy and inconsiderate behaviour. A lot of calls come off the back of 101 and it is kids being rowdy and noisy mainly. We have had 74 incidents of this kind, primarily in the Hoe Road Recreation area, Hamble Springs, Priory Park, The Square, and Baisingwell Street."

"The target with regard to the Constabulary in the general Winchester district is 25 per cent. Last year the Winchester district achieved 17 per cent and this year it achieved 24.8 per cent and in the Bishop's Waltham area there has been a reduction in crime by 7.2 per cent.

Sgt Heward added: "The idea of the Safer Neighbourhoods Team is that the community sets the priorities. Three priorities people have highlighted are speeding, more police visibility, and that has involved all the PCSOs, and to know they can contact the station 24 hours. The station is manned 24 hours, but the front desk isn't. People can use the intercom at the front if they need to get hold of someone."

The Meon Valley team has 30 full time staff working 24 hours, including four full time PCs, four full time Police Community Support Officers, one inspector and three sergeants.

* A 31 year-old woman from Bishop's Waltham has been charged with 60 offences of arson and criminal damage. She is due to appear at Portsmouth Crown Court on Tuesday July 22.

3:59pm Monday 28th April 2008

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