Those of you who have lived in the village for more than 5 years may remember that I was the Elstead officer until 2003 when I went to work at Haslemere, however when the vacancy arose last month to once again be the officer for Elstead I jumped at the chance and was delighted to be
accepted. Elstead is one of six villages I'm covering the others being Frensham, Tilford, Dockenfield, Thursley, & Peperharrow.

Although the area's I cover have a low crime rate, crime is still occurring, the main 2 crimes at the moment are burglary's & thefts from vehicles at beauty spot car parks. The burglary's are not from dwellings but from garden sheds, so please try and be more security aware by, fitting a good quality padlock & hasp, installing an audible shed alarm, & paint your house number and post code on mowers, trimmers etc. Regarding thefts from vehicles parked at beauty spot car parks, if you are going to park a vehicle at one of these locations please do not leave valuables on show, better still do not take valuables with you, I know you're thinking that this advice is obvious but believe me even though I have placed numerous posters at the various car parks people still leave wallets, bags, i pods, phone's on show, I could go on & on but you get the picture, don't take a chance, don't even place items in the boot because you never know who's watching you. I spotted a bag on a passenger seat of a vehicle recently and waited for the driver to return to the vehicle, when she did I advised her not to leave items such as bags on show, she replied that it was only her sons lunch bag, I said that I didn't know that and more importantly neither would a thief. 

The current Neighbourhood Issues in the village at the moment are, speeding vehicles, and the anti social use of off road motor cycles on Hankley Common, I'm currently dealing with both issues, you may already have seen me out with my speed gun? Interestingly the majority of the drivers I have stopped have been Elstead residents, so please if you live in the village it's up to you to set an example and adhere to the speed limit.

Regards
Pc 2295 Rob Hawkes
Safer Neighbourhood Team
2295@surrey.pnn.police.uk

The Meeting on 14^th August had as it's guest speaker, Lady Burgess, our Patron, who gave a very lively and interesting talk covering journeys made with her husband, visiting Wartime Cemeteries . The trips arranged by Victory Tours, spanned a number of years, the journeys being as far apart as Imphal and Kohema, in N India to Tripoli, Egypt and later Hong Kong.

The hotels and their facilities in some of the more rural areas in India left a lot to be desired, and the stories were very amusing,

There were also some touching stories of the widows and relations of the troops involved in these campaigns, when they visited the cemeteries, for the first time and found their memorial stones.

Lady Burgess showed the Members photographs of her trips and brought along a spear, decorated with dyed human hair and a closely woven wrap, both used by the Nagami Tribe, who very closely resemble the Ghurkas.

The meeting on September 11^th was to be a Mystery Trip, but due to lack of support this has been cancelled and at the moment the next Meeting will be on October 9^th when Pam Chandler and Brienne Skewes will host a Bingo Session.