Newsletter Snippets
Town Mayor 2010/2011
Councillor Michael Morse was appointed Mayor of Okehampton for the council year 2010-2011 at the Mayor Choosing Ceremony held on 12 May and Councillor Mrs Maureen McDonald was appointed Deputy Mayor.
The Mayor's chosen charities for the year will be The Museum of Dartmoor Life and The Puzzle Tree in Okehampton.
Mayor & Mayoress of Okehampton 2010-2011, Councillor Michael and Mrs Mary Morse
at the Mayor Choosing Ceremony with Mace Bearers Basil Jones & David Hollinshead
Newsletter/Report from Sergeant Nattrass
'I write this newsletter as what I hope is the first of many monthly newsletters to update you about what has been happening in and around Okehampton and West Devon over the past month.
The police have tried in the past to identify ways to keep the public up to date with what has been happening and what they have been doing and in recent times this has been reflected through feedback to parish councils, community groups, town councils, local newspapers, neighbourhood website and the police newsletter. Unfortunately, as finances become tighter and support staff capacity becomes smaller we need to identify appropriate methods to update you.
With regards to finances and structure, there are no definite plans in place for how policing in Devon and Cornwall will be shaped in the coming years. The 'Blueprint' project team has evaluated a number of different proposals and we are now awaiting the Government Spending Review in October. The updates to this will be passed by the Chief Constable in due course.
We continue to work hard in our investigation of crime and now have access to dedicated interview teams at Exeter and Barnstaple to assist with domestic violence related crime. We hope that this will be expanded to all crime types freeing up more of our officers' time so they can be out on patrol.
Crime has reduced in West Devon by 13.1% (Apr-Aug) compared with the same period last year. Devon's overall reduction is 7.7%. Our detection rate is currently 22.4% compared to Devon's 28.7% and steadily rising. In addition to this we have a further 4% of our offences which have been dealt with by the restorative justice route. This is where an offender (under certain criteria) makes reparations with the victim that they both agree to.
Antisocial behaviour (ASB) has continued to be reduced throughout the year and we attribute this to both high visibility and covert patrols in known hot-spots. Throughout some of the stops we have found that some individuals are in possession of cannabis. Although Okehampton and the surrounding towns and villages do not have a serious drug problem, I would ask all parents, "Do you know where your children are, who they are with and what they are doing?" To support this work our Youth Intervention Officer (YIO) PC Fry attended 'Room 13' and had a question and answer session with local youths.
In the past two months, two of our local youths have been charged with a string of offences relating to criminal damage, violence and public order. One is currently in prison and the other has now moved to Exeter. However, this type of behaviour will not be tolerated and we have laid information to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in order to have Criminal Antisocial Behaviour Orders (CrASBO) for both of these males. I hope to have further information regarding these with my next letter.
Here are just a few of the crimes we have dealt with over the last month:
1 male charged with affray, criminal damage and assault following a domestic incident in Okehampton town centre.
1 male charged with burglary to his former residence in Thorndon Cross.
2 youths completed the youth restorative justice process following damage to a conservatory roof in North Tawton.
1 youth was arrested and charged for criminal damage after being seen to kick a wing mirror from a car on Exeter Road, Okehampton.
2 people have been arrested and charged with drink driving, one of these being the morning after drinking.
A warrant for the possession of Class A drugs was executed at a premise in South Zeal following the receipt of intelligence from an overseas agency. Forensic results for this are pending.
I hope you find this information useful and should you have any specific recommendations, then please do not hesitate to contact your Neighbourhood Team at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '
PS 1637 Lee Nattrass