Recent Updates

Cambridgeshire Police are urging homeowners to check their home security following a spate of burglaries across the south of the county.

Detective Sergeant Jon Lockwood, from the force’s Acquisitive Crime Team, said: “We’ve seen burglaries in Cambridge where victims are leaving doors and windows unlocked, which is being exploited by opportunistic burglars. There has been a spike of these……  ”

Police recommend the following home security advice when you’re not at home:

• Lift, lock and remove the key from your doors and make sure it’s double-locked if possible.
• Make sure windows are secure and locked.
• Make sure that any valuables are out of sight.
• Keep handbags away from the letterbox or cat flap and hide all keys, including car keys, as a thief could hook keys or valuables through even a small opening.
• Never leave car documents or ID in obvious places, such as kitchens or hallways.
• In the evening, shut the curtains and leave lights on.
• If you’re out all day, then it’s advisable to use a timer device to automatically turn lights and a radio on at night.
• Set your burglar alarm.
• Make sure the side gate is locked.
• Lock your shed or garage.
• Lock your bike inside a secure shed or garage, to a robust fitting bolted to the ground or wall, like a ground anchor.

Further home security advice can be found on the force website.

“Crime against the countryside,” says Countryside Regeneration Trust

A national charity, based near Comberton,  which promotes nature-friendly farming today issued an open letter to East West Rail (EWR), calling its plans to build a railway line in Cambridgeshire “a crime against the countryside.”

The Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT), which owns 400-acre Lark Rise Farm near the villages of Barton and Comberton, is calling for EWR to change its proposed route through regenerative arable farmland known as Westfield.

The charity has also raised concerns about ecological surveys carried out by EWR on its land. The CRT is calling on EWR to work with them to protect the specialist habitat at Lark Rise Farm and to rethink its proposal for the southern route through Cambridgeshire.

Conservation Officer Vince Lea said: “We have written an open letter to EWR calling for action.

“The route will be disastrous for the Cambridgeshire countryside. It is the most expensive of the options previously suggested. It has the greatest impact on biodiversity and on residents of south Cambridgeshire.

EWR will take out a vast area of productive farmland, not just under the footprint of the railway line itself but all the surrounding land used during the construction or converted into ‘mitigation’ features. We would like to talk to them about the environmental impact and can share the results of our long-term monitoring of the site, with over 20 years of breeding bird surveys, winter bird counts, otter and water vole surveys, butterfly surveys and knowledge of rare arable plants.”

">" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://www.comberton.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ 300w, https://www.comberton.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ 1024w, https://www.comberton.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ 150w, https://www.comberton.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ 768w, https://www.comberton.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Tim Scott, the tenant farmer at Lark Rise Farm for 30 years, said: “We are in the 24^th year of nature recovery at Lark Rise. We have numerous Red List Species, and we are in the top one per cent of our county for these species and most, if not all of these, will be lost because of the railway.

“I question whether this folly is needed at all, but all common sense would suggest the northern route is the more appropriate one.”