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Community Safety on two wheels!

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The teams will operate in pairs and will be out on their bikes for 4 hours a day at various times from Tuesday 22nd April until Sunday 27th April.

The aim of the team is to engage more closely with young people in the town, and discouraging arson and other anti-social behaviour throughout the school holidays.

The initiative, which has been partly funded by North Worcestershire Community Safety Partnershipand the Kingfisher Shopping Centre, will see Community Cycle Teams heading off on their push bikes around key areas of Redditch, including areas along the River Arrow acting as a visible presence, offering community water safety advice and promoting positive activities for young people to get involved in. They will also look out for potential fire risks, such as abandoned cars, empty premises or fly tipping, and work with partner agencies at ways of removing or reducing these risks.

Watch Commander Shaun D’Oliveira, Community Safety at HWFRS, said: “being able to interact and help to educate young people about the dangers of playing in or near the water is key for us. We would like to highlight the dangers of open water and encourage people, whatever their age, to take extra care.

He continued: “We also want to make young people aware of the dangers of starting fires deliberately, and highlighting the consequences of their behavior to those involved as well as the negative impact it has within the local community, is of great importance to the Fire Service”.

“We will be carefully targeting resources towards areas of the town that have experienced pockets of anti-social behavior, bin fires etc in the past, and monitoring the impact that this has on call-outs to these types of incidents.”

The Community Cycle Teams will be wearing their specially designed cycle kit and will be on their distinctive bikes so that they will be easily recognisable in the community.