Aycliffe Neighbourhood Police Team Sergeant Mark Edwards returns with a festive blog…
Ho, ho, ho – well, I had to start this festive blog on a cheesy note!
That said, now it’s down to business. What’s been going on in Aycliffe in the run up to Christmas?
On Saturday 6th December there was a robbery at McColls Store on Washington Crescent which saw a suspect enter the shop wearing a balaclava and threaten staff with a knife before he made good his escape with a quantity of cigarettes.
The immediate Police Response saw the Helicopter in attendance along with Dog Support Units.
The subsequent investigation by our local CID Team with support from the NPT resulted in the arrest of a 22-year-old male from Durham City.
This male was later charged and remanded where – at this time, he remains at her majesty’s pleasure.
Whilst this crime was horrific in nature and occurred early afternoon I must stress to local residents that offences of this nature are extremely rare for our area and Newton Aycliffe on the whole is safe place within which to live and work.
We’ve now been at our new home with the Fire Service for one year now and it feels great to be closer to the core of the town again.
We’ve certainly noticed a greater ‘footfall’ through the front doors of customers attending – at least local residents can find us now!
Following a successful application to GAMP (Great Aycliffe and Middridge Partnership) for a joint Community Safety Project with our partners in the Fire Service the team have once again launched a crime prevention initiative – similar in nature to the one we carried out in 2013/2014 which saw the NPT distribute large numbers of crime prevention equipment to vulnerable pockets of the community.
Orders have been placed for new stock which we will be looking to disseminate amongst the Community on receipt.
Details of upcoming events will be circulated by the Team via our usual channels. For those who don’t know or realise (shame on you!) we’re active on Facebook (just search for Newton Aycliffe Neighbourhood Police Team) and many members of the NPT have their own Twitter feeds (@Aycliffe_FiveO, @PCSOHutchinson, @TheNoblePCSO, @PCSO_SCOTT, @InspHallspeaks).
On the subject of social media above, you will note that we have a plentitude of Twitter feeds – the idea behind this is to give followers a thorough insight into the workings of the Neighbourhood Team from Inspector rank, down through Sergeant and Pc, to the PCSO’s.
Whilst the team work together as a collective the PCSO’s play a larger part in community engagement whilst the Pc’s address the criminality issues – following all our feeds will give you the whole spectrum experience!
On behalf of Aycliffe NPT I wish you all a very happy Christmas and hope it’s a merry, festive time!
Be good!
Mark J Edwards
Aycliffe NPT Sergeant