Good evening all.

I hope you're all well.

As ever the Romney Marsh is keeping me busy but it's not all bad news, yesterday for example I was fishing, no, not a day off along the canal with my feet up waiting for the float to disappear under the water, this was a work related event to learn about fishing laws which for me covering the Marsh is a great asset with all the lakes and miles of canal that we have.

As part of the training day, we were permitted to cast out and I was successful but unfortunately the few I caught ‘got away’ and so no photos, but I did get one of the lake  

On Thursday 25th April I felt privileged to have been invited to the licensing of a new Vicar at All Saints Church Lydd, the Rev’d Jack Greenhalf. It was a packed church to welcome Rev'd Jack to the Romney Marsh Benefice. My attire was a bit different than normal, the ceremonial tunic with the shiny buttons saw the light of day however, the headwear was the same though!

Staying with Lydd, I attended the annual parish council meeting on 22nd April at the Town Hall where there was a good turnout of residents and representatives from various local organisations.

I've been involved with making enquiries regarding the recent burglaries that the Marsh has suffered from however, it wasn't just the Marsh that was targeted but as per a previous post of mine, the great news is that the spate of café/takeaway burglaries between Folkestone and St Mary's Bay=5 offenders arrested, then we had a burglary in Dymchurch and vehicle crime all in one night=both offenders arrested the same day, and then another spate of burglaries and vehicle thefts in the area=5 offenders arrested. 

However, please remain vigilant and carry out the following checks on your home security.

Check that our 8 legged friends haven't set up home on your CCTV camera lenses, they like a bit of infrared which is why they choose the cameras! 

If you have security lighting make sure it works and is flooding entry/exit points to your property.

Check that your CCTV footage subscription is in date. 

Those with ‘keyless’ vehicles, please invest in a ‘Faraday’ bag to keep the key inside as these bags block the signal from the key to the vehicle's computer which will make it very difficult for would be thieves to use steal your vehicle by using a device outside of your home that boosts the signal from the vehicle to the key fooling the vehicle to think that you're stood next to it and therefore unlocking/disarming itself.

Consider a steering wheel lock or similar, these are inexpensive and although appear to be an old fashioned security device, they're a visible deterrent and would delay a car thief.

Please make sure that you check your external doors are locked before you go to bed and when you leave your home, don't leave keys near to the front door if they can be easily got at via the letterbox. 

Consider a moveable bollard or two for your driveway that would prevent the movement of your vehicle from the driveway. 

Lock your vehicles every time you're not going to use it even if it is on your driveway or in the road outside your home because it takes seconds for it to be stolen especially if it's made easier for the offenders.

Despite the above, I can't stress enough how safe the Romney Marsh is to live and work, we have been very unlucky with the relatively quick succession of burglaries but it shows by the offenders being arrested that we (the police) take it very seriously and do everything we can to arrest the offenders as soon as we can. Thank you also to those victims and members of the public who have played a part in assisting us with our enquiries.

I've also been answering 999 calls on the Marsh to assist my Local Policing Team (LPT) colleagues and helping other colleagues in our Victim Based Crime Team (VBCT) department with their enquiries on the Marsh.

After all that I thought I deserved a brief sit down on one of the new benches at Dymchurch!

Thank you

Steve.