Parish Council News & Information

16/03/26 - Beat Report - Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary

Hello and welcome to the February 2026 Beat Report for the New Forest Heart area. Your team is PC 24901 Mark ROBERTS, PC 27901 Stuart READHEAD and PCSO 14495 Richard WILLIAMS.

On Monday 23^rd join us at the Bramshaw Village Stores at 8am and outside the Post Office in Bartley at 9am. The following day on Tuesday 24^th March we will be at the Happy Cheese Pub in Ashurst with the Ashurst and Colbury Neighbourhood watch team and on Wednesday 25^th from 11am join us at the Lyndhurst Parish Council Offices at the back of the Community Centre and then in Brockenhurst on Brookley Road from midday, just opposite Tesco.

Our Beat Surgeries last for 30 minutes, unless demand is high of course, but as we always say if you can’t come to any of these meetings you can always call or email us, but to report a crime or any anti-social behaviour dial 101 or go the Hampshire and IOW Police website. Of course if it’s an emergency always call 999.

We are also holding another one of our Walking in Partnership events on Saturday 21^st March at the LINFORD BOTTOM car park. The walk starts at 11am and last for about two hours and the distance is just over three miles. The post code is BH24 3HU and the W3W are revisits.pleaser.contracts. These events are for solo walkers or for people who don’t feel comfortable walking on their own in the New Forest and they are led by Forestry England. If you would like to be added to our mailing list so that we can let you know exactly when, where and what time please email richard.williams@hampshire.police.uk

Seven garages, outbuildings and sheds were broken into in February. Two were on the same night in the Longdown area, two were on a different night in Ashurst Bridge, and the others there were in Brockenhurst, Bartley and Copythorne. A van was stolen from Ashurst where it had been parked overnight on the driveway and number plates were taken from a car parked in the Blackwater car park on the Rhinefield Ornamental Drive. Thieves often steal number plates so that they can use them on similar cars when they go out and commit crime so if you ever have yours taken please let us know.

The good news this month is that officers based at Lyndhurst investigating a burglary and vehicle related theft series in the New Forest have now charged two men. Billy Ridout, 28, of Hedley Close Fawley has been charged with conspiring to commit burglary, conspiring to commit non-dwelling burglary, conspiring to steal a vehicle, driving while disqualified and using a motor vehicle on a road/public place without third party insurance. Thomas Wellman, 28, of Rushpole Court, Dibden has been charged with conspiring to steal a motor vehicle, conspiring to steal from a motor vehicle, conspiring commit dwelling burglary, conspiring to commit non dwelling burglary and handling stolen goods. The charges follow incidents reported to Police since September 2025, the majority of which have occurred in the New Forest area. A total of more than £100,000 worth of property has been reported stolen.

In February we had three shopliftings, two at the Tesco in Lyndhurst and one at the Tesco in Brockenhurst - suspects have already been identified for two of them and investigations are continuing for the other one. Other thefts in February included equipment from a sewage treatment works in Beaulieu and the community speed watch tripod in Brockenhurst.

Forestry England have reported damage to their car park signs in Goatspen, Wood Corner, Hinshelsea, Holmsley and Culverly car parks and they have also found large amounts of waste from cannabis grows dumped at James Hill and Cadmans Pool car parks. At the end of the month you might have seen us stopping vehicles on the High Street in Lyndhurst and pulling them into the car park. Officers from the New Forest Heart and Totton Police Teams, the Rural Task Force and the Neighbourhood Enforcement Team were joined by the Driver Vehicle Standards Agency, New Forest District Council and Forestry England to carry out a joint operation targeting commercial vehicles in the Forest. In total 35 vehicles were stopped, 2 vans needed to change tyres before they could continue their journey, 1 had to be recovered due to a dangerously faulty brake hose and four vans carrying waste must provide a valid waste carriers licence to NFDC within 14 days or face a fine. All other vehicles, trailers, and plant machinery were thoroughly examined. Great teamwork so thanks to all of our partners helping us to reduce fly tipping and vehicle crime across the Forest.

This month’s Op Mountie session took place at Kings Hat Inclosure as dusk fell because last year’s figures show that animal accidents now happen as much at the end of the day as the beginning. Op Mountie is our unique operation aimed at tackling this issue with the help of our colleagues at Forestry England, the New Forest Roads Awareness Team and the New Forest National Park. We believe that if we want to change drivers behaviours and attitudes then we should use education as well as enforcement and Op Mountie is when we all work together to achieve those aims. This month we only stopped two vehicles but both were travelling over 10mph above the speed limit - 52 and 51 on a 40mph road and both received tickets. Thank you to all of those drivers who did stick to the speed limit, as always you are the vast majority and we all really appreciate it.