Police to give crime prevention advice at Haresfield garden centre

Officers from the Stonehouse police Safer Community Team (SCT) will be at Blooms Garden Centre tomorrow, Saturday June 5, offering green fingered shoppers crime prevention advice.
Between 1pm and 3pm the officers will be on hand at the garden centre on Bath Road in Haresfield with advice on personal safety as well as security tips for your home and car. The officers will also happily discuss with keen gardeners how specific plants and security measures in your garden can help stop thieves in their tracks.
Blooms is one of a number of garden centres in the county that are taking part in Gloucestershire Constabulary’s Defensive Gardening campaign.
The campaign is supported by Crimestoppers and was so successful last year that it won funding from Secured by Design to run again this year. It aims to encourage homeowners to use carefully chosen plants to help protect their gardens and homes from criminals during the summer months.
The bright green ‘Spiky’ mascot for the campaign was named by schoolchildren at Severnbanks Primary school in Lydney and will appear on pots, plant tags and displays in garden centres and nurseries that are supporting the initiative, to identify the shrubs that could help you protect your home.
An impenetrable hedge is just as effective as security fencing and looks far more attractive; spiky shrubs around vulnerable windows can serve as a deterrent to those tempted to break in and small purchases from a garden centre such as shed alarms and dawn to dusk lights can go a long way to helping deter thieves.
More information about the Defensive Gardening campaign and a comprehensive list of the types of prickly plants to purchase can be found on the Gloucestershire Constabulary website. www.gloucestershire.police.uk/Crime%20Reduction/Home%20Safety/Garden%20Security%20Advice/item16398.html

(Reproduced from Stroud News and Journal, June 4th)

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