Rural Crime
Below you will find details on how we are working to tackle rural crime in South Oxfordshire.
Rural Crime Partnership
The Rural Crime Partnership brings together Thames Valley Police, West Oxfordshire, South Oxfordshire, Vale of the White Horse District Councils and the Community Safety Partnerships to tackle crimes such as fly-tipping, burglaries and theft in rural areas.
Rural crime affects victims’ livelihoods, physical and mental wellbeing and that of the wider community. In 2023 the National Farmers’ Union reported a 22 per cent increase in the value of rural crime with costs reaching a total estimate of £49.5 million across the UK.
The project has been made possible thanks to £156k funding the partnership secured from the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley and the Home Office’s Safer Streets initiative.
Initiatives include:
- New covert cameras to be used by the Police’s Rural Crime Taskforce alongside off-road bikes to target criminals in hard-to-reach areas.
- Working with farmers to improve security. Farms will be eligible to sign up for security checks and will be given DNA marking kits for agricultural machinery. These kits include property marking labels to deter theft, and where theft happens enable machinery to be tracked back to the farm.
- A new Rural Crime Advisor will work to promote rural crime prevention and engage with rural communities, industries, farms and organisations such as Young Farmers and the National Farmers’ Union, to help them become harder to target for criminals.
- New surveillance equipment will help district councils catch fly-tippers and tackle hot spot areas.
Further information is available on the Rural Crime Partnership website
Rural Crime Survey
In 2023 residents, farming communities and businesses/organisations were invited to have their say on how rural crime is affecting their communities in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse. A total of 406 responses were received and a summary of the results can be found on our Rural Crime Survey Summary report.
The most common rural crime concerns were fly tipping, machinery theft, thefts from beauty spots or damage to buildings and historical places and hare coursing.
Findings from this survey helped to prioritise the work of the Rural Crime Partnership.
Safer Streets Funding from the Home Office, secured by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley to tackle rural acquisitive crime, has been allocated for:
- Surveillance equipment to tackle illegal fly-tips
- DNA marking kits for agriculture machinery
- Promotion of rural crime prevention and engagement
- Police off-road bikes to target criminals in hard-to-reach areas.
You can continue to have your say through the Rural Partnership Survey to help shape further projects.
Fly-tipping
We are responsible for investigating fly-tipping on public land within the district. To report a fly-tipping incident, please visit our section on fly-tipping, littering and dumped waste
Contact us - Community safety
01235 422590
(Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)
South Oxfordshire District Council
Abbey House
Abbey Close
Abingdon
OX14 3JE
