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• Thieves told ‘don’t bother’ at Ham Hill

• Date:

  17th January 2006

• Contact:

  Sarah Egerton

• Organisation:

  The Civic Trust

Ham Hill in Somerset has been an important community site since the Iron Age. Founded as a country park in 1975 following a period as a quarry, the site contains the remains of the largest Iron Age hillfort in Europe. It is a key recreational location for many local and visiting members of the public, and the job of the rangers to balance the needs of all these users.

However, the large 400 acre site is inevitably vulnerable to crime - the position of six car parks dotted across the site away from any buildings or villages mean that vehicles are sometimes targeted by thieves while owners are out walking.  This and various other incidents accumulated in an escalation of events in the summer of 2003 and a story in the local newspaper helped to launch the Vulnerable Vehicle Scheme in partnership with the local police force.

The scheme incorporated a number of initiatives to tackle the problem. Warning letters were sent to vehicle owners leaving items of value on display in their vehicles giving advice on how not to become the victims of crime and a free site leaflet was distributed with warnings and advice to users on vehicle security and contact points.

New, brighter signs were installed in all car parks warning about car crime and a quantity of scrub was cleared from around the car parks, opening up sight lines. Park users were encouraged to join the ‘Ham Hill Watch Scheme’ and an incident reporting system was organised with the police improving knowledge on hotspots and increasing availability of funding for the police. A record of suspicious looking cars was kept and passed onto the police fortnightly.

A joint information leaflet was produced, with the costs split between South Somerset District Council and Avon and Somerset Police 50/50.

The leaflet was designed to fulfil three main functions:

1. Act as a source of information and for a list of contact points.
2. Be an incident reporting form (to encourage the public to report incidents).
3. As a ‘Don’t Bother’ card. A sign to put on the dashboard of the vehicle to discourage thieves.

The campaign worked - the following summer a member of the public witnessed a gang of four youths breaking into a car in an adjoining car park. She was immediately able to ring the police hotline and ranger team, giving precise location details (it is a 400 acre country park). This meant that despite the offenders quickly driving off, the police set up a road block and caught them 3 miles away. They were arrested and prosecuted. After this successful case car crime on site reduced dramatically – the gang was very prevalent. The success of the scheme was publicised locally and the leaflets flew out as people realised their value.

Kate Menday, Senior Countryside Officer at South Somerset District Council said: “Car crime is still at a low level - we were all very pleased with the outcome. Over the past three years we have worked hard to address the issues on site and feel that we have had many successes, often in partnership. The big lesson that we have learnt is don’t put your head in the sand, the problems won’t go away!”

On their first visit to the site last year, Green Flag Award judges were full of praise for the ‘Excellent local links with the local police force through the crime reduction package’ and the ‘High on site staff presence.’

As well as becoming a Green Flag Award winner, the site boats accolades including: Scheduled Ancient Monument, Geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, County Wildlife Site and Regionally Important Geological Site.

For further information on detering anti-social behaviour, contact Katy Menday: 01458 257435