Rural Communities have their say

Facilitated by Board Member Anne Connolly, the ‘Let’s Talk’ styled meeting gave people attending the show an opportunity to put their questions to panel members consisting of Board Member David McIlveen MLA, newly elected UFU President Harry Sinclair and PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Dave Jones.

Speaking about the event Anne Connolly said: “This is the first time the Board has held an event at the Balmoral Show and I would like to thank people for taking the time to come and share their concerns with the panel.

“The Board understand that agri-crime in particular has a major impact on the farming community and this meeting has been an excellent opportunity to hear at first-hand what the real issues are”.

UFU President Harry Sinclair said: “Rural crime has become a very serious issue that is unfortunately affecting many of our members. At the beginning of the year the UFU met with the Board Chair and Vice-Chair, as well as senior PSNI officials to discuss the UFU’s concerns and put forward suggestions for tackling rural crime and we welcome the Board’s engagement on the issue”,

Assistant Chief Constable Dave Jones added: “Police are currently looking at the definitions of ‘agricultural crime’ which relates to the targeting of livestock and machinery and ‘rural crime’ which incorporates assault or burglaries which take place within rural communities in an attempt to focus resources appropriately.

“The prevention and detection of rural and agricultural crime continues on a day-to-day basis in partnership with the Ulster Farmers’ Union and other insurers; with work aimed at increasing the rural communities’ confidence regarding police service delivery and in encouraging the reporting of agricultural crime by the public.

“It is encouraging to see the cost of theft from Northern Ireland farms show a reduction in 2011 compared to 2010 as we continue to engage in a problem solving approach with the farming community and hope to see a continuing downward trend going forward.”