Longer Nights

Following the end of harvest, and the start of longer nights, it is a good time to remind ourselves of keeping our eyes and ears open, and to report suspicious activity to the police.

This is a short video from December 2020, by Field Sports Channel, featuring Northumbria Police and Rural Crime Volunteers and the benefits of working as a community to create "no go areas" for criminals.

The Rural Crime Volunteers (Operation Hawkeye) has had tremendous success in reducing rural crime, North Yorkshire and a few other forces run similar schemes, but Northumbria Police are leading the way with other forces approaching them for advice.

At 2 minutes 34 seconds, Sgt. Pattison highlights a good point as to why people volunteer for Operation Hawkeye.

At 5 minutes 10 seconds, for those that have not seen it, there is a short feature on Poacher Blocker - that restricts access to most vehicles except tractors, sprayers and such like. Poachers, lampers, coursers in 4x4's are unable to get in to fields.


The full article is at: https://www.fieldsportschannel.tv/operationcheckpoint/
 
And...

I can not emphasise enough, the need to report any and all rural crime - first to the police (and Environment Agency/local council for waste crime/fly-tipping), but also any organisation which you are a member of, be it the NFU, the CLA, CA, etc..

I fully appreciate how futile it too often is, when you make the call, and nothing happens. But for things to change, the scale of the problem needs to be fully understood and recognised, the facts and figures need to be there. Doing nothing, achieves nothing, but doing something will make changes happen in the medium/long-term.

At the very least, for the next generation to come.

I have mentioned elsewhere on this forum, local and national government work almost exclusively in facts and figures. And to successfully lobby for change, we need to be armed with accurate information which fully highlights the sheer scale of the problem.

This has not been happening. If we want positive change, then we need to change our habits - otherwise it will just be the same-old, same-old. And the government, and police leaders will carry on in ignorant bliss.

Don't just take my word for it, take a listen here at this podcast,

Link: My Name Is... - Richard - BBC Sounds (sign-in required, or one minute registration required).

At 22 minutes 45 seconds, Sir Mike Penning (MP for Hemel Hempstead and former Police and Justice Minister) is asked about funding for police and priority of rural crime, and he replies that it never "sat in my in-tray", because it was not sufficiently reported.

This is backed up at 24 minutes 10 seconds, by Julia Mulligan (a farmers daughter, former North Yorkshire Police & Crime Commissioner and former chairman of the National Rural Crime Network) who also highlights that rural crime is not being accurately recorded.

It is a frustratingly long game, but if you want things to change, then do your bit and report rural crime so the government is finally awakened to the severity of the issue.

The thread is here:

 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.7%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 64 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.2%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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