At the estate BID’s AGM, delegates were told that crime is now at an all-time low on the estate, thanks in part to its Police Community Support Officer Ian Taylor, who has been working on Brackmills for four years.
Ian’s appointment and security initiatives such as the estate’s CCTV cameras, has led to a 60% drop in crime since 2009.
Ian pictured, 52, said: “I do mainly high visibility policing, which means patrolling the estate and acting as a first point of call for businesses wanting advice and help. When the BID recruited me crime was being tackled but was still a big problem for the estate.
“There were a high number of thefts – from vehicles, of cycles and even of metal.
“That has changed, most crime has been eliminated and our only main challenge is now cycle theft. That is why I do a lot of preventative work with companies, we have cycle marking events and the BID has supplied marking kits and discounted locks to over 100 employees.”
Ian’s post is fully funded by the Brackmills Industrial Estate Business Improvement District. The BID is run by companies on the estate which each pay an annual levy – a total of nearly £2million over five years – to fund initiatives, events and projects identified as priorities by the businesses themselves.
BID chair Sara Homer said: “We are committed to working as a team and as a community of businesses to keep safety and security at the heart of our estate.”
Other security initiatives on the estate include the recent launch of an incident section on the Brackmills website, designed to help provide incident advice and news for businesses on the estate should incidents occur.
Brackmills also has a dedicated travel advice support page. BID project manager Chris Barker sends out incident alerts to businesses when he hears of any suspicious activity on the estate.
