Rutland County Council is working with Leicestershire Police and Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service to launch a new initiative to help prevent crime in rural communities.

The Safer Villages scheme - part of the Safer Rutland Partnership - has been developed by the council's Community Safety Team together with the local fire and rescue service and policing units that patrol Rutland.

By providing villages with their own stock of community safety resources, materials and specialist training, the scheme aims to reduce crimes that can affect rural areas, such as shed break-ins, burglaries and vehicle thefts.

This is in addition to other community safety priorities, including ongoing efforts to tackle speeding in towns and villages.

Cllr Alan Walters, Cabinet Member for Community Safety at Rutland County Council and Chairman of the Safer Rutland Partnership, said: "Rutland is an area of low crime. It's a very safe place to live.

"However, we can be a target for opportunistic criminals who use the A1 to travel in and out of areas to commit thefts and burglaries.

"The Safer Villages scheme aims to equip communities with the knowledge and tools that can help guard against crime.

"By working together with the police and local villages in this way, we want to stop and deter thieves who see rural communities as an easy target."

The Safer Villages scheme will equip villages with a box of crime prevention equipment including shed alarms, window alarms, signs, stickers and special markers that can be used to security tag garden tools and household items.

Each box will also contain information and advice about vehicle crime, home security, fire safety and spotting fraudsters.

Safer Village Boxes will be distributed to parishes that agree to have a 'Safer Villages Champion' – someone who will receive specialist training from the council's Community Safety Team and Leicestershire Police, so that they can advise their communities.

The Safer Villages scheme will be trialled in Ketton, Market Overton, Lyddington and Greetham in September and reviewed after 12 months, before being rolled out more widely across Rutland.

Sergeant Nicholas Woodrow, from Leicestershire Police, said: "We applaud the work being done by Rutland County Council and look forward to working with them throughout this campaign.

"We recently held an event with partnership working at the forefront of discussion and this project is a perfect example of what we are trying to achieve.

"Keeping our rural communities safe is vitally important and we would always encourage anyone who notices something suspicious to contact the police, by calling 999 in an emergency or 101."

Matthew Walters, Station Manager at Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, added: "We're happy to be a part of the Safer Rutland Partnership and supporting the Safer Villages initiative.

"The safety of our communities is paramount to everything we do as a service, and by working alongside Rutland County Council and Leicestershire Police we hope we can help create safer people and safer places within the Rutland area."

Anyone with any questions about the Safer Villages scheme can contact Rutland County Council by emailing [email protected].

For more information about community safety and how to report crime and antisocial behaviour, click the red button below.