Newsletter Longford Park
Introducing Longford Park’s new Community Development Partner
My name is Rosie Phillips and I am the new Community Development Partner at Cherwell District Council. I have been appointed to work specifically on Longford Park, and Bicester’s Kingsmere development. I will be the residents’ contact point at this Council, and will be involved in helping the Longford Park Community Association come together to set up and run the new Community Centre. I’m very keen to meet as many residents as possible, especially with ideas for activities and groups that residents would like to set up. The new primary school have kindly offered me space to work on site from September, and I’m actively pursuing up to date information on the community facilities that are planned for Longford Park. I’m in post on Longford Park for 2 days a week (Wednesdays and Fridays) and will be visiting Longford Park regularly over the coming weeks. My working hours are flexible to cover evening events and meetings, so please contact me via my email rosie.phillips2@ cherwell-dc.gov.uk or say hello when you see me on the development. I have a bright turquoise car! I may not know the answers to all your questions immediately, but will do all I can to get them from the right people!
Summer 2017
Residents Newsletter
Longford Park Neighbourhood Watch
(by Carl)
Back in April Longford Park residents took the first steps in setting up a Neighbourhood Watch network for our area. Residents met with members of the Banbury Town Neighbourhood Watch Policing Team and our PCSO, Rob Bliss. PCSO Bliss explained that the Neighbourhood Watch scheme designed to encourage the community to care about the area they live in, and is proven to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour by acting as a link between the community and the police, assisting the police to get messages out to residents quickly. Residents were reminded about the importance of reporting suspected crime to the Police 101 number and not using social media to alert others to prevent alerting criminals. During the meeting residents also heard from Michelle Miller, a Police Community Relations Officer for Cherwell and West Oxfordshire. Michelle’s role is to look at crimes across the area, identify patterns and speak to victims – carrying out home visits and conducting talks in the community. Both PCSO Bliss and Michelle were keen to point out that Longford Park is in a relatively safe area, with the entirety of Cherwell and West averaging five burglaries a week, including rural areas. Residents were reminded to complete an inventory of their
valuables, take photographs and write descriptions down (including mobile phone IMEI numbers) and email details to themselves to prevent information loss. Residents were also encouraged to use UV markers to mark hardware and leather, smart water to mark precious jewellery, and engraver or nail polish to mark more expensive items locked in sheds and out buildings. Residents were also given advice about nuisance and rogue traders, Nottingham Knockers (criminals selling cleaning products with the ulterior motive of reconnaissance) with the message to report ANY instances to 101 in order to track and record the incident. Resident Sarah Gibbs has volunteered to be Longford Park’s Lead Co-ordinator, with Colin Stoddard backing her as second point of contact. Sarah has welcome packs available for Longford Park residents who wish to participate in the scheme. If you are interested please contact Carl Purkins via the contact details in this newsletter and I will put you in touch with Sarah.