PARTNERS SOLIHULL CHAMBER PATRONS PREMIER MEMBERS


The race gets under way


JOINING FORCES TO FIGHT CRIME


BY SALLY BOURNER CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT, SOLIHULL POLICE


Charities benefit from Blythe Valley fun run


The event included a 500m fun run and 5km and 10km races around the countryside and pathways of the business and country park off junction 4 of the M42 and helped raise funds for two charities. Entry fees collected by joint-organisers Shirley Lions Club and Liberty Property Trust, which manages the park, will go towards boosting Marie Curie’s Big Build Appeal to raise £7 million for a new hospice for the West Midlands. Funds raised are also to be shared with Solihull Leisure Opportunities (SoLO) which provides support to people with learning disabilities to improve their quality of life. The 10km race was won by Richard Dixon in a time of 40 mins 44 secs followed by runner-up Gavin


M


ore than 300 people took part in the eighth annual Blythe Valley Park charity fun run in Solihull.


‘Entry fees will go towards boosting Marie Curie’s Big Build Appeal to raise £7 million for a new hospice for the West Midlands’


Davies (40-51) and Andy Hall (41-14) in third. Rachel Hatfield (45-39) was fastest woman over the line, while the 5km honours went to Stuart


Wischhusen (20-44) and Emma Cakebread (25-25), while Grace Bartlett won the children’s mini fun run. There were also prizes for the youngest competitor, five-year-old Shazad Khan, who took part in the 5km race, oldest runner, 81-year-old Nicki Barter, and best fancy dress winner Joyce Sale. Kate Smith, of Liberty Trust UK, which develops and manages the business park in partnership with Doughty Hanson & Co Real Estate, said: “Once again we had a really good turn out for the event. A lot of people have to pull together to make an event like this a success, so a big thank you to everyone who took part, Shirley Lions for once again doing a great job helping to organise the event and also our main sponsors Virgin Active, Caterpillar and Couch Perry & Wilkes.”


Recruitment firm


finds new home Solihull-based Managed Serviced Offices (MSO) is the new home for fast growing Aarca Recruitment. Aarca, which specialises in sales recruitment,


has already moved its 13 staff into MSO’s Cranmore Place building, in Cranmore Drive. The company has moved to Cranmore Place from a rival serviced office location nearby. MSO now manages more than 1,000 fully


serviced office space desks, as well as storage space and flexible industrial units throughout the West Midlands.


Serviced office space in Cranmore Place


Police operation halves fuel theft in Solihull


Incidents of fuel theft from garage forecourts across the Borough have halved following a Solihull Police operation targeting ‘bilkers’. Codenamed Operation Kadence, the initiative


ran throughout July and saw 17 arrests for offences including bilking (the name given to driving off without paying for fuel), number plate theft, drugs possession plus a variety of motoring offences. We were recording around 100 fuel theft


offences every month before Operation Kadence – but during the July push that figure fell to 74 and in August just 49 ‘bilkings’ were reported.


‘People can be quite dismissive of fuel theft, believing it’s largely a victimless crime’


Inspector Farooq Sheikh led Operation Kadence. Solihull has seen a significant fall in the number of fuel thefts as a result of the operation. Anybody considering driving off without paying needs to be aware that, in addition to CCTV cameras, police officers may well be watching. People can be quite dismissive of fuel theft,


believing it’s largely a victimless crime. However, the reality is these offences are often


committed by people who’ve stolen number plates from other cars or even stolen vehicles – so offenders have a negative impact on the wider community and tend to be linked to other criminality.


Among those arrested included a student


suspected of stealing up to £700 in petrol after driving off from garage forecourts across the West Midlands without paying. The 23-year-old appeared at Solihull Magistrates


court on September 19 accused of filling up on 13 separate occasions from stations in Solihull and Birmingham between February and June. Other arrests included a 29-year-old man from


Kitts Green who was handed a 12-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay back almost £450 after admitting 11 Solihull bilkings.


OCTOBER 2011 CHAMBERLINK 17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56