Rural crime on the rise in Bedfordshire, says farmer
Crimes include damage to land and equipment theft
A farmer in Bedfordshire has reported a rise in rural crime across the county, while praising police efforts to keep numbers low.
Freya Morgan, who runs Park Farm in North Bedfordshire faced 10 incidents of rural crime in 2020, including theft and hare coursing.
While she invested £12,000 in security upgrades for her farm, such as lockable gates and hiring private security firms, the issue remains a concern for her and other farmers, who lose out in their trade with every crime.
She said: "We use GPS units, guidance protect or guidance satellite units on tractors and combines. Those tend to be stolen to order and will go across to Europe, they have been traced back there."
"The satellites on top of the tractors are about £8,000 each, but also they connect with equipment in the tractor so often they will also break into the tractor and cut the arm out of the tractor from where the seat is, with all the technology it connects to."
"If that happens, we can't even start the tractor and you can be waiting months to get replacement parts for that, so it's very serious to us and it actually stops you getting on and doing your work in a timely manner."
While the GPS systems are the main concern for Ms Morgan, smaller equipment thefts are just as impactful to their daily work.
"Farm Machinery, farm vehicles, fuel and working tools such as chainsaws, workshop equipment, and when those will get stolen, you actually lose the tools of your trade, and that again stops you from getting on and doing your day-to-day work", she added.
Freya Morgan however praised collaborative efforts to combat rural crime in the county from Bedfordshire Police and cross-county partnerships.
Bedfordshire Police's Rural Crime Action Team has expanded from six to ten members.
She said: "We have two barn meetings a year with the police, and we also have a chat group that is set up by the National Farmers Union, and the police are actually on that to access to see what's happening and what's going on."
"But we always have to report crimes, and working with the police, the online system's being improved significantly so we've actually got separate sections to report different types of incidents, so that's been helpful for everybody within the rural community and the urban community."
"The police have listened to what we've asked for and are our issues and they have been working hard to help correct them."
Though Ms Morgan noted a decrease in incidents on her farm over the past year, she emphasised the need for further improvements to keep rural crime down.