Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

Sent by Julie Bailey (Police, Community Safety Officer, Fenland)

The clocks go back this weekend, With that in mind please see the below and attached The clocks will be going back at 2am this Sunday and while this might mean an extra hour in bed for many people it also means that the nights will be getting darker earlier. Check out our winter burglary crime prevention advice here ….

After the clocks go back we start thinking about the darker night’s drawing in. Traditionally there is a rise in burglaries in the winter period, especially during the run up to Christmas and it is sensible to think about your home security.

You can reduce the risk of being a victim of burglary by following four simple steps:

1. Leave a light on inside your home when you are absent, preferably using a low energy bulb.
2. Use a timer switch to activate lights as it gets dark, alternating the times they are illuminated to give the impression of someone being at home.
3. Make sure your front door is well lit using dusk to dawn lighting that automatically comes on as it gets dark.
4. Make sure you keep your doors and windows locked at all times.

In addition, we would advise you to take these security tips:

• Register valuable items with a serial number at www.immobilise.com and add a photograph.
• Do not leave your car keys, handbags, wallets or mobile phones near doors, letterboxes or windows.
• Never leave keys in the door if you have a cat flap or letter box.
• Keep your valuables out of sight. Burglars will be looking through windows for items of value.
• Install a visible burglar alarm with a box on the front and rear of your property.
• Keep gates and sheds locked.
• Store your wheelie bins behind secure side gates to prevent them being used as climbing aids.
• Increase the height of your back or side fencing by adding diamond style trellis topping which is difficult to climb.
• Plant spiky plants in vulnerable areas.
• Think about getting a driveway alarm – this is a cheap and effective deterrent which can be switched on at night when you go to bed to protect against anyone entering your drive or garden.
• If you are lucky enough to be going away on holiday, do not post your holiday plans or movements on social-networking sites.
• Subscribe to your local Neighbourhood Watch

Kind regards Julie Bailey Crime Prevention and Community Safety Officer Fenland.

Nothing new in this scam – however this is what came from Action Fraud….

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) and Action Fraud have recently noticed that Fraudsters have been setting up fake adverts on social media (including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and job browsing websites to dupe people into believing they are recruiting for prospective models.

Once victims show interest in the job, the fraudsters contact potential victims on the false promise of a modelling career and subsequently advise the victims to come in for a test shoot.

The fraud can then potentially be carried out in two ways;

Firstly, the fraudsters can pressurise the victims in sending an upfront fee to book a slot for the test shoot. Once they have received the upfront fee, the victim will never hear from the fraudsters again.

The second possible method is that the fraudsters will take the advance fee that the victim sends for a photo shoot and arrange a photo shoot with the victim. After the photo shoot, the fraudsters will contact the victim after a few days and convince them that their shoot was successful and offer them a job as a model. The victim will then be asked to sign a contract and pay another upfront fee, usually to secure the modelling contract.

Fraudsters are also creating fake adverts for supposed modelling opportunities for children which do not exist. Fraudsters will inform parents or guardians that a potential career in modelling awaits their child. This tactic convinces the parent or guardian to sign up their child and send an advance fee.

The suspects will also convince the victim that in order to become a model, they will need to have a portfolio. The fraudsters will recommend a number of packages and stress that if a package is not paid for in advance, the process of becoming a model cannot continue.

Over a two year period (September 2015 – August 2017), an average of 28 reports of advance fee modelling frauds have been received per month by the NFIB. In August 2017, 49 Action Fraud reports of this fraud type were received and may continue to rise. The total loss in August 2017 alone was over £71,000.

Tips for staying safe:

• Carry out your own research prior to paying any type of advance or upfront fee.
• Be wary if you are asked to pay for a portfolio, as many legitimate agencies will cover that cost.
• Don’t give your bank account details or sensitive information to anyone without carrying out your own research on the relevant agency.
• If you have been affected by this, or any other type of fraud, report it to Action Fraud by visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040.

Ever since I became ‘involved’ many years ago, I have on many occasions muted the idea of a ‘closer’ relationship with our immediate neighbours ‘Peterborough’ – when-ever the subject was brought up – it was though I had raised something extremely toxic….Now I well appreciate it may not be everyone’s utopia to have a more ‘friendly’ relationship with Peterborough City Council – My argument was and still is, we in Whittlesey/Villages have been ‘The Poor Relation’ in comparison to the other market towns, Chatteris has a similar argument as does March, but as a previous town councillor I found it difficult to engage with most of the other Fenland councillors who could influence a debate.
Some like the ‘Luvey relationship’ they have.
That’s partly history now , I have met several PCC councillors in the past and they all wondered ‘why’ Whittlesey was not engaging with them.
There are some major disadvantages – no one want to be ‘swallowed’ up the PCC Unitary Authority, I have spoken with people in Eye and Yaxley (Partly in Hunts) to hear how they believe they have been rough shod.
So I am now getting some positive vibes that one, two, or maybe more of our ‘current’ councillors may be ‘warming’ to the idea of ‘engaging’ with Peterborough in a more positive way.
One Councillor recently used a phrase –
“with FDC’s apparent apathy towards Whittlesey”

“the consensus of opinion that came across was that Whittlesey fits into the slot of being a  commuter town with increasingly strong links with Peterborough where a large proportion of our population go to work and potentially could bring their wealth back into the Whittlesey economy.”

Hello, Hello, why has it taken ‘years and years’ for some of our Councillors to wake up to the reality.
I naturally am a supporter of any engagement with PCC – with certain reservations of
I quote Ex PM Cameron (Lessons must be learnt – from Eye and Yaxley).

Whittlesey like it or not, is becoming closer and closer economically, socially and demographically.

Do you know a child who likes to draw?

Then we would like to hear from you.
As part of The Big Draw Festival this month, which promotes drawing as a tool for learning, expression and invention, Cambridgeshire Constabulary have launched their own art competition. This half term, we’re inviting children under 12 to dig out their pens, pencils and paints and submit a drawing to fit the theme ‘The Police’. Engaging with young people and listening to their experiences is an important part of our role and we hope this light-hearted competition will get the young people of Cambridgeshire thinking about the police and the role we play in their communities. There are two age categories, five and under and six to 12-year-olds.
The winners will receive a personalised tour of our headquarters in Huntingdon and entries will be displayed across the force.
If you know someone who might like to get involved, ask them to send their entry along with their name, age and contact details to corporate.communications@cambs.pnn.police.uk,
post it to Corp Comms, Hinchingbrooke Park, Huntingdon, PE29 6NP or submit it via our social media channels, Facebook (@CambridgeshireConstabulary) or Twitter (@CambsCops).
The competition will close on 29 October. Best Wishes, Cambridgeshire Constabulary

Tackling Domestic Abuse is a national priority for the Home Office, Police, Neighbourhood Watch and Crimestoppers.

Neighbourhood Watch is working with Crimestoppers to raise awareness about domestic abuse and what our supporters and volunteers can do to help prevent and report it.  We would be grateful if you could spend just 3 minutes completing this survey, the results of which will help us to  signpost people to the right place to report their concerns. Your responses are completely anonymous.
You can complete the survey by clicking on the link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NWN-DV-Survey

Further to my many previous articles, there is still a ‘long’ way to go. There are many, – civil servants, government ministers and MP’s who are dragging things along – it almost seem like No one is prepared to make a decision (Fairly common in the civil service – people are ‘afraid’ in case they get the blame!).
So the Big Coca Cola®™ company who have previously been a staunch opponent of a deposit scheme, look likely to now ‘sort of’ back the campaign – but as said – someway to go.
Read the article on the BBC – BBC – Coca Cola Latest

At approximately 2 am this morning at ‘The Drink Shack’ in Whittlesey, Offenders have rammed a vehicle into the front of the off-licence and attempted to drag an ATM out of the store and cash boxes have been removed.
A silver Mitsubishi was left at the scene. If anyone has any information in relation to this please contact us on 101 or email March.NPT@cambs.pnn.police.uk and quote CF0598791017.
Kind Regards PCSO Shane Green

Maybe not a common occurrence however there are times when we do use our own transport ..

Dear Mr Gerstner, (Not a problem for you – You are going Hybrid!)

The T-Charge (Toxicity Charge) starts next week on Monday 23 October 2017. This is part of the commitment by the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and TfL to help clean up London’s dangerously polluted air, which contributes to thousands of early deaths each year in London, and impacts our health over the course of our lives – leading to smaller lungs in our children, and greater risk of dementia and stroke when we get older. As of Monday 23 October, older cars, vans, minibuses, buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles driven in the central London Congestion Charge Zone will need to meet new minimum emission standards, or pay a £10 daily T-Charge.
This will be in addition to the Congestion Charge and will operate from 07:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday.

You can check if your vehicle meets the required standard with our vehicle compliance checker https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/emissions-surcharge/emissions-surcharge-checker

If your vehicle does not meet the emission standards and it is registered for a discount or exemption, you will automatically be registered for a T-Charge discount or exemption.
If you are registered for Auto Pay, you will automatically be charged for the T-Charge. Alternatively, you can avoid the charge by taking an alternative means of transport.
To help plan your journey,

visit tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey or to pay the charge from Monday 23 October,
visit tfl.gov.uk/t-charge

Between 15/10/2017 18:00 – 16/10/2017 07:30 on Briggate West , Whittlesey.
A Black Mitsubishi L200 vehicle has had a part stolen from under the vehicle whilst it was parked.

If anyone has any information please email March.NPT@cambs.pnn.police.uk or call 101 and quote CF0594161017.
Kind Regards PCSO Shane Green

WHITTLESEY & DISTRICT BUSINESS FORUM

Falcon Hotel, London Street, Whittlesey, Peterborough, PE7 1BH.

General meeting Wednesday: 18^th October, 2017.

At Falcon Hotel 6.00 for 6.30pm

The very unfortunate death at Whittlesey railway station made the national press, a great pity for this to have happened.
Unfortunately I was unable to attend the WTC council meeting on Wednesday so no report.
My campaign regarding a deposit scheme for cans, bottles, plastics etc is gathering momentum without any help from our MP Steven Barclay who is someone very quiet on the issue. Many other MP’s from differing parties have taken a very positive stance on the implementation of such a scheme.
Unfortunately some of the more ‘dimmer’ MP’s do not understand technology along with their ‘dim’ civil servants. They believe you can only recycle cans in an automated system – wrong – wrong  and wrong again – here is a photo which I took recently in a ‘Walmart’ (American Superstore who owns Asda) the Machine took glass bottles, plastic bottles and aluminium cans – and gave out tokens to exchange at the counter – and items sorted themselves within the machine.

Is this just too difficult for our ‘advanced’ country to come to terms with – the Germans and Scandinavians have similar systems.

Another major environmental issue is that of disposal of coffee cup

In the UK, we throw away an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. In theory, they are “recyclable”, but in practice, only a tiny percentage is dealt with sustainably.
Yet so far, there’s no agreed way forward.

Parliament’s environmental audit committee has been hearing the latest thoughts from campaigners and industry on how we can improve on our record in this area.
The Government has been gathering ‘information for years now and are still unable to make any firm commitment on these issues

Read more on this BBC News/Business

Then there are the ‘promises’

• Theresa May’s election manifesto promised to ‘do more to reduce litter’ 
• The current maximum fine stands at £80 but town halls have demanded a rise
• A large majority of councils now want the power to levy fines of £150 for littering 

  Litter louts face on-the-spot fines of £150 under plans being drawn up by ministers.
  Town halls have been asking for the penalty to increase sharply from £80 and to rise to £300 for those who pay late.

  They would be able to use the proceeds as they wish – raising fears that councils will use litter patrols as a cash cow.
  Councils have had the power to hand out spot fines for littering, and other offences including dog fouling and fly-posting, for more than 25 years.

  Theresa May’s election manifesto promised to ‘do more to reduce litter’, and a review of the level of fines has been launched.

  Officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs believe existing fines raise only ‘relatively small’ amounts.
  Originally litter fines were set at a flat rate of £10, and for the past 11 years the maximum fine has been £80, which can be reduced to £50 for those who pay promptly.

  I and many of my friends will be very happy if any of these promises and initiatives come to being in the future (or near future) I dare say the country has more important issues to contend with – maybe the word multi-tasking is something new to Ministers.

Talks and negotiations have been going on for some time, but this week it looks like The Co-Op Group has been successful in mounting a takeover of the countries NISA Stores.

Britain’s Nisa Retail said on Saturday its chief executive had left the convenience retailer, which is in talks with the Co-operative Group to be taken over.
Nisa, which is owned by its independent retail members, said Nick Read had left with immediate effect but did not give a reason.

A source close to the negotiations with the Co-op said Read’s sudden departure “was not expected to impact the deal and exclusive talks are ongoing.”

Last month Britain’s second largest supermarket group Sainsbury’s suspended bid talks with Nisa, saying it needed a clearer idea of whether the competition regulator will approve takeovers in the fast-growing convenience sector. That opened the door for the Co-op.

How this is going to effect the (2) NISA Stores here in Whittlesey I am not sure, but at present our town does sustain the 1 small Co-Op + 1 Medium NISA + 1 Convenience NISA @ Victory Avenue….we wait and see….

Amazing that Sainsbury’s are ‘looking’ at take-overs at present – but pulled out of the chance to build a Supermarket here in Whittlesey – somewhat ironic I say…..