CCTV becoming the norm on our farms

ON-FARM security cameras have become routine in rural Wales as farmers find themselves under siege from criminals, a new survey has discovered.

Last year alone, one in five farmers here were victims of crime, according to a poll by NFU Cymru.

Of those, 10% were targeted more than once and almost a quarter of them (24%) said their losses totalled more than £1,000.

More than half of the farmers questioned have upgraded building security – and they now routinely remove equipment from vehicles overnight.

Others, however, have gone to even greater lengths: more than a third of farmers (35%) have installed CCTV on their properties.

Almost 30% have blocked off field entrances as a safeguard against rustlers and fly-tippers.

All of this has come at a cost. Some 31% of farmers say that, over the last five years, they have invested at least £1,000 in crime prevention measures.

NFU Cymru president John Davies said: “The statistics are all the more disturbing when you consider that they are drawn from a year when the nation was largely locked down.

“We must not forget that the data in these findings is more than a number – it represents a farmer and a business that has experienced a loss or an illegal disturbance.

“As a farm is so often a home as well as a place of work, it makes it doubly unsettling for those families subject to crime.”

The Welsh survey was part of a poll of nearly 2,000 farmers across England and Wales. It showed that just over half the rural crimes in Wales last year (52%) were theft.

Almost a third (29%) involved trespass and 16% fly tipping.

The Welsh Government is to appoint an all-Wales rural and wildlife crime co-ordinator to tackle rural crime in Wales.

However, NFU Cymru also wants to see the issue given greater priority in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections on May 6.

Farmers, too, must play their part in addressing a problem that extends well beyond the farm gate, said Mr Davies.

“Only 55% of our survey respondents reported the crimes that had taken place on their farms,” he said.

“Our industry has a role to play in ensuring that police forces have an accurate picture of the level of rural crime in their patch.

“It is absolutely vital that we report incidents and suspicious activity, no matter how insignificant they may seem.”