WEST Mercia police are running a campaign in February called ‘Love Your Neighbourhood’. As part of this campaign officers from Wyre Forest Local Policing Teams are ‘opening’ a community shop for a week in Kidderminster town centre. Between Tuesday 21st and Saturday 25th the shop in Blackwell Street (not far from Boots) will be open from 10am to 4pm.

The shop is open to everyone and I am hoping that during the course of the week as many people as possible will take the opportunity to visit.

We will be joined by a number of other organisations with the aim of giving free advice on various issues and you may even get some free items to take away!

Pop in for advice on matters such as recycling, fire protection, drugs or for a free health check.

With representatives from the Community Safety Partnership, Neighbourhood Watch and the police your questions on crime prevention are bound to be answered.

Security marking your possessions is another area that we will be giving advice on. There are many security marking products on the market and these all help in identifying your property should it be stolen.

Once you have security marked your property, go a step further and place it on the national property register, Immobilise (www.immobilise .com).

This online checking service is used by all UK police forces to trace owners of lost and stolen property. In addition Immobilise is checked daily by a huge range of recovery agencies and lost property offices.

As a direct result, there are more than 250 cases a week where property is returned or information collected that assists the police in investigating criminal activity involving stolen goods.

Should you have any items stolen, you will find it easier to deal with insurance companies as well.

Come along to the shop in February and find out more.