Going home for the holidays? Don’t give burglars a break!

The Easter holidays are approaching and many students will be going home to finish coursework, prepare for exams and hopefully find time to have a break. The unfortunate thing is that burglars know that students typically go home during this period, leaving an empty house behind that may have valuables inside. 

Burglars target houses for different reasons but most burglars are opportunists. Students living in shared houses will have 5 times the amount of valuables than someone living alone. This means, 5 laptops, 5 phones, 5 bikes etc for burglars to take. The good thing is that students can take preventative measures to secure their home and property. Follow these simple tips from South Wales Police:

Lock it. Hide it. Keep it.

►   Ensure all doors and windows are locked. It may sound obvious, but you will be surprised how many doors and windows are left unlocked. Make sure your windows and doors are locked, even when you are in.

►   Protect valuables. Never leave expensive items on display and take all valuables home with you. Why don’t you register your valuables for FREE by visiting the national property database www.immobilise.com.

►   Secure the garden. Shut and lock garden gates and clear gardens of items that could be used to force entry e.g. bricks, ladders.

►   Remove obvious signs that it’s a student house. Club night posters in windows and overflowing rubbish in gardens tell burglars that students live in the property. Clear frontages of rubbish and remove obvious signs that it’s a student house, e.g. posters. Find our your next waste collection day at www.cardiff.gov.uk/waste

►   Extra support. Ask your landlord/letting agent or a trusted neighbour to keep an eye on your house during the holidays, and ask them to push through any mail hanging from letter boxes. Use timer light switches when your property is unattended for any length of time, this makes it look like someone is in.

For extra safety advice visit www.south-wales.police.uk or www.cardiffdigs.co.uk , or contact PC Student Liaison Officer Tim Davies on Timothy.Davies@south-wales.pnn.police.uk or 07976277161

Follow South Wales Police and Digs on Twitter, @swpeast and @cardiffdigs

Remember to Lock it. Hide it. Keep it.

Environmental Champions out in force for Go Green week!

The Environmental Champions team will be out in force as Go Green Week launches on Monday 10^th February.  The team has organised activities including green workshops, a litter pick and a community walkabout for each day of the event across Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University sites as well as the Cathays area of the city.

Cabinet member for Environment, Cllr Ashley Govier said, ‘The Environmental Champions are a very committed team and it’s great to see them so fully involved in Go Green Week.  We have greatly increased our work with the student community with a specialist team operating in Cathays, Roath and Plasnewydd advising all residents on aspects of recycling and food waste collection.  We are also backing our One Planet vision with action on encouraging our communities to act in a more sustainable manner and these events only serve to bolster all the good work going on throughout the year.’

Student Liaison Officer, Emma Robson said, ‘Go Green Week is an excellent opportunity for us to get out there and raise awareness of sustainability issues and it’s great to see so many students volunteering and engaging with their local community. The Environmental Champions are making invaluable improvements to the local area and by encouraging their peers to live more sustainably; they are setting a perfect example for the wider student population’.

The Environmental Champions are supported by Cardiff Council, www.cardiffdigs.co.uk, Student Volunteering Cardiff (SVC), and Keep Cardiff Tidy; this partnership project has over 50 members drawn from the public, student community and public bodies such as the police and Cardiff Council.

For more information and to see a full list of events, go to www.cardiffdigs.co.uk