FOLLOWING partnership working between West Mercia Police, Cleobury Mortimer Council and Smartwater, there has been an initiative in the town to make it a ‘Smartwater Town.’

To achieve this status at least 80% of residences in the town have to have Smartwater, which is a property marking fluid used to safeguard your valuables.

With the assistance of West Mercia Police and local volunteers over 1,150 houses in the town now have Smartwater kits and are, hopefully, all busy marking their valuables. That means that well over 85% of the town has Smartwater.

Matt Sheehan, the Council Clerk, was the mastermind of the delivery operation, keeping track of which households had been given Smartwater and which needed a follow up visit.

"One of my main aims is to enable communities to take the lead in preventing crime for their own benefit, and this scheme is a perfect example of this,” said Bill Longmore, West Mercia’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

The initiative in Cleobury Mortimer was instigated by the Cleobury Crime Reduction Group and has been funded by Cleobury Mortimer Parish Council, South Shropshire Housing Group and the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner.

It is also part of West Mercia Police's strategy of tackling rural crime.