Archive for 'Security'
Met Police Launch ’12 Days to Get Cycle Safe’ – Bike Marking Campaign
May 15, 2011 by admin, under Campaign, Security.
Not everyone can have a , so following on from the previous campaign by SmarterTravelRichmond, the Met Police in Richmond have launched . Between 17th and 28th May, there will be over 30 bike marking events across the borough. See the end of this post for an event near you.
Given our report last year of the 2,296 bikes stolen in the borough between 2007 and 2010, we would encourage everyone to have their bicycle marked to increase the likliehood of having it returned if it is stolen, as well as checking out the advice summarised below:
- Advice on your
- Guidance on
- Take down the details of your bike (particularly the frame number) and take a photo of it – Bike details template
- Get it security marked by the Police
- Register your bike – via set up by local Twickenham cyclists, and on the police run or
- Report your bike when stolen – Call or follow the link to (its vital to report stolen bikes, both to improve chances of recovery, but also to make sure theft statistics are accurate). also have a facility to report stolen bikes and improve chances of recovery through use of social media
- Check out London Cycling Campaign’s ‘Beat the Thief Campaign’ which provides good advice in the areas above –
- Don’t leave a bike rack on the roof of a car parked outside your house – it
Here’s a full list of the events planned for this campaign. This has changed a couple of times, so double check the for any last minute alterations:
| Location | Date | Time |
| Crane Park | 17th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Moormead Park | 17th May | 4pm – 5pm |
| Outside St James School | 17th May | 3pm – 4pm |
| Starbucks, Barnes | 17th May | 11am – 12pm |
| Crane Park | 18th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Marble Hill / Tow Path | 18th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| St Margarets Train Station, | 18th May | 4pm – 5pm |
| Whitton High Street | 18th May | 1pm – 3pm |
| Hammersmith Bridge (N. Side) | 19th May | 1pm – 2pm |
| Heathfield Recreation Park | 19th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Trafalgar Junior School, Twickenham | 19th May | 2.30pm – 4pm |
| Twickenham Riverside | 19th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Whitton High Street | 19th May | 1pm – 3pm |
| Meadway Underpass | 20th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| St Mary’s University College | 20th May | 11am – 12pm |
| York House, Twickenham | 20th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Birdies Bikes, Hampton | 21st May | 12pm – 4pm |
| High Street, Hampton Hill | 21st May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| Kneller Gardens | 21st May | 4pm – 5pm |
| Evelyn Road, Richmond | 24th May | 7pm – 8.30pm |
| Meadway Community Centre | 24th May | 12pm – 1pm |
| St Mary’s CoE School, Twickenham | 24th May | 2.30pm – 4pm |
| Barnes Towpath, Lonsdale Rd | 25th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Jocelyn Road, Richmond | 25th May | 7pm – 8.30pm |
| Orleans School, Twickenham | 25th May | 3pm – 4pm |
| Twickenham Green | 25th May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| Cambridge Gardens | 26th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Moormead Park | 26th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Old Deer Park | 26th May | 7pm – 8.30pm |
| Radnor Gardens | 26th May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| Meadow Bank, Twickenham | 27th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| St Margarets Train Station | 27th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Strawberry Hill Train Station | 27th May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| London Wetlands Centre, Barnes | 28th May | 1pm – 2pm |
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SmarterTravelRichmond ‘Lock it or Lose it’ Campaign – Update
December 3, 2010 by AJB, under Campaign, Security.
How not to lock your bike!
We’re now one event away from the half way point of SmarterTravelRichmond’s ‘Lock it or Lose it’ campaign, launched in reaction to the large number of bike thefts in the borough, and here’s an update from the team on progress so far:
Enforcement
- Twickenham bike repository created by Police
- A recently marked bike was recovered after being stolen
- rental scheme bikes at Richmond Station will all be marked at next event
- Four events to date with 91 bikes marked and 68 bikes checked by Dr Bike
Education
- Over 250 handlebar tags placed on parked bikes with safety tips, bike register details and ‘deterrent’ factor. Also distributed to all SNT officers for dissemination
- Banners at different rail stations
- Posters sent to all retailers and places around council property
- attended an event to give appropriate bike locking advice
Engagement
- Letters sent to all bike retailers and charities on behalf of Cabinet member Cllr Head asking them to promote campaign and telling them how they can help
- Posters sent to all retailers and BTP contacts
- Coverage in the local press and on and
- Quote about the campaign in a
- Council engineers have pledged to consult the police and RCC before installing cycle parking
The next event will be on the lower concourse of Richmond Railway station from 4pm on Wednesday 8th December. The remaining five events are listed below and further details on location can be found here – here - Bicycle Theft Reduction Events
Tuesday 21 December – Richmond High Street, 16:00 – 19:00
Saturday 15 January – Teddington Rail Station, 14:00 – 17:30
Tuesday 25 January – Teddington Town Centre, 16:00 – 19:00
Thursday 10 February – Twickenham Rail Station, 16:00 – 19:00
Wednesday 23 February – Richmond Town Centre, 16:00 – 19:00
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Audit of Cycle Parking at Railway Stations in Borough of Richmond
November 1, 2010 by AJB, under Campaign, Security.
“Although half the nation owns a bicycle and 60% live within a 15-minute ride of a station, only 2% of passengers currently use their cycle to access the local station.”
Source – Dft
Compare this to Holland where:
“All major stations in Holland provide extensive cycle parking, usually based around a cycle hub which also offers additional secure storage for a fee of about £1 a day, together with repairs and cycle hire for as little as £3 a day. A typical Dutch intercity station would store 4,000 cycles, but at Leiden this rises to 9,000 and the plan is to more than double this to 22,000 in the near future.” Source – Dft
There are thirteen railway stations in the Borough of Richmond, each with great potential for increasing the number of people arriving by bicycle. RCC members carried out an audit of all thirteen stations and these audits can be accessed by clicking on the station name in the table below.
Check out your nearest station and the recommendations from the audits. These are live documents so let us know of anything we’ve missed, new issues or things you’d like to see improved at Having accurate information is vital to influence future consultations and any future updgrades of facilities.
| Station (Click on station name to see audit) | National Rail | Cycles Reported Stolen (1) | Cycle Parking Spaces (2) | % Usage of Parking (3) | Annual Passengers (4) | DfT Target Spaces (1/20 passengers) (5) |
| Barnes | 5 | 62 | TBC | 855,109 | 117 | |
| Barnes Bridge | 1 | 14 | 0 | 233,627 | 32 | |
| Fulwell | 3 | 20 | 40 | 242,576 | 33 | |
| Hampton | 3 | 49 | 53 | 610,021 | 84 | |
| Hampton Wick | 11 | 82 | 39 | 439,060 | 60 | |
| Kew Gardens | 1 | 34 | 141 | 2,028,668 | 278 | |
| Mortlake | 6 | 102 | 63 | 992,791 | 136 | |
| North Sheen | 0 | 0 | n/a | 160,160 | 22 | |
| Richmond | 9 | 128 | 125 | 6,742,049 | 924 | |
| St Margarets | 1 | 12 | 100+ | 775,058 | 106 | |
| Strawberry Hill | 1 | 16 | 56 | 507,697 | 70 | |
| Teddington | 7 | 92 | 52 | 1,254,146 | 172 | |
| Twickenham | 14 | 60 | 100+ | 2,460,099 | 337 | |
| Whitton | 4 | 10 | 100+ | 683,975 | 94 |
(1) Bikes reported stolen by the British Transport Police, (01/06/09 – 07/03/10). Source, BTP
(2) Bike parking spaces as observed as part of 2010 RCC Parking Audit
(3) Based on number of spaces observed full as part of 2010 RCC Parking Audit
(4) Obtained from BTP website, Accessed October 2010.
(5) DfT Report targets 5% of passengers arriving by bicycle – equates to one space per 20 passengers
(6) In Holland, where up to 40% of passengers arrive by bicycle, there is on average one space per 3 passengers
RCC would like to see improvements in three areas that would help realise the potential for growth in cycling to stations in the Borough – Security, Provision and Access.
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Richmond Station Consultation
October 25, 2010 by admin, under Campaign, Security.
LBRuT now have two plans for the station forecourt at Richmond Station. This is part of their town centre refurbishment. They are asking for public opinion. Deadline is 17:00 Monday 1st November.
Plans and consultation form can be seen at .
The main areas that are of concern to cyclists are that the railings are removed in one option (meaning that the area will look nicer but cycle parking will be significantly reduced as there is no provision mentioned to replace it) and that in both options the only concession to cyclists are advanced stop lines at the junctions of Kew Road and Church Road.
Read more about what we think here…
Our Richmond Station cycle parking audit…
Richmond Railway Station Parking
Please take the time to fill in the council’s consultation form.
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SmarterTravelRichmond launch Campaign to Reduce Cycle Thefts in Richmond
October 19, 2010 by AJB, under Campaign, Security.
Following our report earlier this year of the 2,296 bikes stolen in the borough since 2007, have launched a six month ‘Lock it or Lose it’ campaign in partnership with the and running from October 2010 to February 2011. The partnership is aiming to reduce cycle theft within the Borough of Richmond, and this will be through Education, Enforcement and Events.
Education
Through the campaign, the team want to reduce the chances of cyclists having their bikes stolen and increase the likelihood of recovery in the following key areas:
- Registering your bike – via set up by local Twickenham cyclists, and on the police run
- Reporting your bike when stolen – Call or follow the link to (its vital to report stolen bikes, both to improve chances of recovery, but also to make sure theft statistics are accurate). also have a facility to report stolen bikes and improve chances of recovery through use of social media
London Cycling Campaign’s ‘Beat the Thief Campaign’ provides good advice in all these areas – and see the advice on our earlier post.
Enforcement
The police are placing cycle theft high on their priority list and this includes several key actions:
- Increased high visibility patrols at cycle theft hot spots across the borough
- The setting up of a central repository for recovered bicycles in the borough at - all the recovered bikes in the borough will be sent to this central point and people who have their bike stolen can call and report it, get an appointment and can view reclaimed bikes to identify theirs within 2 months.
Events
Ten events have been arranged across the borough from October through to February 2011. The first, held on 12 October at Twickenham station attracted over 100 participants. At these events there will be:
- Free Cycle Marking
- Theft Awareness Advice
- Sign up for Cycle Training and Maintenance Training
- Dr Bike bicycle checks
Further details of the events can be found here -
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Are you one of the 2,296?
August 6, 2010 by AJB, under Campaign, Security.
As part of , RCC has obtained, via a Freedom of Information request, information on bicycle theft within the Borough of Richmond from 2007. The numbers are telling – in that period a total of 2,296 bikes were stolen. We’ve uploaded both the FoI response from the Met and an analysis of the numbers so you can look at them for yourself, but here are some key take aways:
- Across the Borough, there has been an 8% increase in the number of reported thefts since 2007
- In the first 6 months of this year there have already been 344 thefts, putting 2010 on track to be the worst year
- The worst wards are South Richmond, Barnes and East Sheen, accounting for nearly a third of all thefts so far in 2010
- Several wards have shown an improvement – St Margarets and North Twickenham and Twickenham Riverside wards are on track this year to halve the number of bikes stolen in 2007
- Thefts have increased significantly in several wards over the period, particularly Barnes (+106%), East Sheen (+200%) and Ham, Petersham & Richmond Riverside (+140%)
- There has been a marked increase in 2010 in some wards, with Teddington showing almost as many bikes stolen in the first 6 months of 2010 as in the whole of 2009
- Only 6% of bicycles reported stolen are recovered, in spite of Richmond’s SNT marking over 8000 bikes in the Borough
The chart below shows where the thefts have occurred in 2010 (click on the chart to see a larger version).
We asked the police in Richmond what they were doing to tackle cycle theft in the Borough and they provided the following statement:
“Richmond upon Thames SNT’s regularly perform cycle marking at a variety of community events and locations and currently over 8000 bikes have been marked . The SNT also plan their patrols around the locations of reported crime and indeed in June, significant arrests were made of two individuals which are suspected of being involved in a number of bicycle thefts . The SNT crime priorities are decided by the community and reflect the crime concerns that community has . At the beginning of August 2010 two wards , Ham and North Richmond have theft of pedal cycle as a priority.”
Given the low recovery rate, and the lack of interest in some of the wards to tackling this problem (have a look at the minutes from the ), the best approach is prevention, with good guidance from LCC’s Beat the Thief campaign, including this .
If your bike is stolen, it is most likely to end up on eBay or Gumtree – a London cyclist and you may be able to spot your bike using it – . A quick look at the site illustrates how many of the bikes are blantantly stolen (limited information on the bike for sale, use of pictures from catalogues rather than actual photos of the bike for sale) and .
We shall report back soon on the the audit of cycle parking at railway stations within the Borough, but in the interim don’t hesitate to contact on this or any cycling related concerns in the Borough.
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Cycle Parking Audit at Railway Stations
May 17, 2010 by AJB, under Campaign, Security.
Following the earlier post about the new cycle parking at Richmond Railway Station, we can report back that after our feedback South West Trains visited the station to review the parking and recognised that additional signage is required. The council are also looking at the opportunity to provide additional signage to complement that provided by South West Trains. We were also told that the cycle parking is covered by CCTV which is monitored on a 24 hour basis from Waterloo.
To coincide with the new cycle parking at Richmond, the members of RCC have undertaken an audit of the other 13 stations in the Borough, which we will report back on next month. In the meantime, the table below lists the stations, with plans of them along with the number of reported bike thefts over the last 9 months, a period which saw a total of 66 bikes reported stolen by BTP. The figures make interesting reading, particularly the disproportionate number stolen from Hampton Wick, in relation to the number of passengers using it.
| Station | Location | National Rail | Stolen Bikes (01/06/09 – 07/03/10) Source – BTP | Bike Parking Spaces Source – National Rail | Passengers Per Year Source – BTP |
| Barnes | 5 | 38 | 855,109 | ||
| Barnes Bridge | 1 | 10 | 233,627 | ||
| Fulwell | 3 | 20 | 242,576 | ||
| Hampton | 3 | 64 | 610,021 | ||
| Hampton Wick | 11 | 50 | 439,060 | ||
| Kew Gardens | 1 | 12 | 2,028,668 | ||
| Mortlake | 6 | 54 | 992,791 | ||
| North Sheen | 0 | 0 | 160,160 | ||
| Richmond | 9 | 128 | 6,742,049 | ||
| St Margarets | 1 | 0 | 775,058 | ||
| Strawberry Hill | 1 | 8 | 507,697 | ||
| Teddington | 7 | 98 | 1,254,146 | ||
| Twickenham | 14 | 60 | 2,460,099 | ||
| Whitton | 4 | 10 | 683,975 |
This review coincides with London Cycle Campaign’s recently launched “Beat the Thief Campaign“, which as well as an .
Closer to home, local Twickenham cyclists are setting up a website called , which will allow you to register your bike details for free and offer help in finding your bike if it’s stolen. There is also the national already established. Also in the Borough, several of the Met Police Safer Neighbourhood Police Teams are increasing the priority of countering the theft of cycles. have offered to provide free security marking to anyone who contacts them.
There is a lot you can do to reduce the chances of having your bike stolen and increase the chances of having it recovered:
1. Take down the details of your bike (particularly the frame number) and take a photo of it – Bike details template
2. Get it security marked by the Police and register it –
3. Choose your locks wisely, lock it up correctly and select where you lock it carefully – and see
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New Cycle Parking at Richmond Railway Station
April 25, 2010 by AJB, under Campaign, Security.
South West Trains have just installed a new cycle parking facility in the car park of Richmond Railway Station. There are spaces for up to 96 bikes, it is covered and well lit at night. It is also alongside the well frequented pathway from the rear of the station to Church Road so should improve security.
Unfortunately, at present there is not a great awareness of the new facility as there is little signage of its existence, other than this little sign by the station entrance.
We intend to raise this with SWT and hope to see improved signage installed.
Going forward, we are going to do a survey of cycle parking at all the railway (and underground) stations in the Borough of Richmond. Anyone guess how many there are? Answer in a later post. In the meantime, if there is a particular station you would like us to focus on, send us an email at and we’ll ensure it gets done.
Cycle security remains an issue throughout London, and is an area that . It is a very current issue in the Borough of Richmond, as this report from - 16 bikes stolen from stations in the first quarter of 2010 (taken from ).
For more information on cycle security and how to lock your bike, is highly recommended.
