Wilby was caught with items like meat and desserts

A man who stole hundreds of pounds of items including meat from a Peterborough shop has been jailed. Edward Wilby, 36, went to a branch of M&S at the BP garage off Bretton Way seven times from January 27 to February 16.

Each time, he stole items from the shop by putting them in a bag and walking out without paying. On February 17, he went to Aldi in Flaxland, Bretton, where he stole meat worth hundreds of pounds.

With effective communication between stores via Disc, the police were able to arrest Wilby. Disc is an information sharing platform from Peterborough Positive, the city’s Business Improvement District.

Wilby was found by the Spree Offender Team carrying some of the stolen meat. Wilby, of no known address, admitted to eight counts of theft from a shop.

At Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, February 18, he was jailed for six months. He was also ordered to pay £549.70 in compensation.

PC Rebecca Risebrow, from the Spree Offender Team, said: “Wilby persistently stole from the same shop, taking hundreds of pounds worth of stock.

“He simply strolled in, filled a bag with what he wanted and walked out again.

“This kind of behaviour is incredibly frustrating for retail staff. We’re working closely with businesses to identify offenders and bring them before the courts.”

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Cllr Angus Ellis, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment said: “We need people’s help not only to report fly-tipping to us but also to encourage others not to do it. “

A Peterborough resident has shared their frustration towards “horrendous” fly tipping in places around the city. Mark Fishpool, who has lived in Peterborough all his life, runs a community volunteer group and carries out a clear up most days.

Mark expressed his frustration after finding fly-tips in various places across Peterborough and particularly in Fengate. Some of the places Mark and his volunteer group have recently found fly-tips include Storeys Bar Road, Edgerly Drain Road, Willow Hall Lane, and near Manor Drive Academy.

Mark is calling for “urgent action” to fix the “epidemic”. He said that he is lucky to have not found a “huge industrial fly tip” so far but if it carries on, he said “one day it will be somewhere hidden away”.

Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, Cllr Angus Ellis said: “We are fully aware of fly-tipping levels locally and are actively working to tackle the issue. Several measures have been implemented across Peterborough and surrounding areas, including investing money in new cameras in hotspot locations and are working with communities to educate them about correct waste disposal.”

The 70-year-old resident explained that Willow Hall Lane is a fly-tipping hotspot, and described it as “horrendous” there. Mark said that he finds fly-tips on both private and publicly owned land, and he documents all his findings with photographs to report to Peterborough City Council.

Mark explained that he has been campaigning for the last three years in order to “get things changed”. He believes that the “system needs to change” and “more pressure put on from people with a little bit of power.”

He said: “It is the pollution of the river courses and the streams that is the heart-breaking thing. When I see all this in dikes and ditches, I think, this isn’t doing the environment any good whatsoever.”

The waste that Mark said he is finding can sometimes leave roads blocked. Some of the worst things that Mark and the volunteer group have found include oil containers, old chemicals, and tins of paint, which can leak into the watercourses and once it gets into the water “it is impossible to clean it out”. It is “killing all the wildlife and wild animals” and “it must make them suffer tremendously”, he said.

The volunteer has previously been sent pictures of animals caught up in wire, netting or in a tin can, and said “I don’t think the general public realise the damage they are causing by just going out and thinking ‘I’ll just dump this here’.”

Mark works everyday to clear the fly-tips, and said: “I see things that other people don’t. When you drive along a road in your car, you only see half the picture but when I am walking along, I can see the dikes and the ditches, and the fields that other people don’t see.

“What annoys me most is, instead of just dumping it on the side of the road where it can be collected easily, they [fly tippers] are throwing it into dikes and ditches, which sometimes are ten feet deep, making it difficult to clear it. I do not agree with fly tipping, but they are causing a double problem.”

“It makes you wonder what goes through their mind when they are doing it”, Mark added.

Last week Mark was litter picking on Highbury Road in Peterborough, and he said that “when you look down into the dikes and ditches, it is full of everything under the sun that is laying there in the water.” He also sends his photographs to local councillors but they are only able to report it he said, and he assures that “they probably try their best”.

Peterborough City Council said they have also set up a cross-party task and finish group to look at fly tipping and increased Fixed Penalty Notices for fly tipping offences to the maximum amount.

As well as this, Cllr Ellis said that they have also ran a public awareness campaign to educate residents about the environmental and legal consequences of fly-tipping and plan to continue these in future.

Cllr Ellis continued: “As part of our most recent campaign, we updated our website section on fly-tipping which now contains helpful advice about using registered waste carriers and how businesses and landlords should dispose of waste. Our officers also regularly visit local schools to teach children about the importance of proper waste disposal.

“We need people’s help not only to report fly-tipping to us but also to encourage others not to do it. I would also like to remind people that we are only responsible for cleaning fly tipping from council land and if people witness a fly-tip taking place they should report it immediately to the police.”

The farm has multiple play areas and animals to see.

If you are trying to save a bit of money but still want to take your children out to do some activities over half term, you might want to check out this farm just outside of Peterborough. Sacrewell Farm is letting kids enter for free with every paying adult during half term and has a range of indoor and outdoor activities.

If you are lucky with the weather, you can spend plenty of time enjoying the outdoors and taking a walk on one of the routes around the farm’s countryside. You can take a walk through the farm and the surrounding area. You can walk for either one mile or three miles depending on how active you feel.

Children might love to say hello to all the farm animals that call Sacrewell home, including rare, heritage, and recovering-breed animals. You can see sheep, goats, pigs, and more unusual animals like alpacas.

After seeing the animals, you can let children run free around the outdoor play park, which features swings, slides, and climbing equipment. There is also a sensory garden where you can take a moment to enjoy some peace and quiet.

If it does start raining during your trip, Sacrewell Farm has an indoor soft play area with colourful ball pits and climbing frames ideal for “energetic imaginations”. The soft play area also has lots of themed zones, including a chicken coop where children can run around and collect eggs.

The farm also has its own café that you can visit after a long walk around the countryside or after spending hours in the playground. The café is open for full English breakfasts and muffins as well as toasties, jacket potatoes, and a few larger meals at lunchtime.

The farm also has its own gift shop where you can pick something up to remember your trip by. The shop is packed with toys, games, and books to keep the fun going at home.

Entry to the farm over the half-term will be free for children. Day tickets for adults cost £13.55 and can be bought from the Sacrewell Farm website.

Sacrewell Farm is in Thornhaugh, Peterborough – just a 16-minute drive from the city. The farm has plenty of free parking for visitors to use.

He was jailed for two years and five months

A convicted drug dealer who tried to drag a woman out of her car outside a doctors’ surgery in Peterborough has been jailed for more than two years. Lee Holliday, 43, ran towards the victim’s car as she was driving out of the Westwood Centre in Peterborough at about 1.30pm on July 31.

The victim stopped driving when she noticed Holliday chasing after her, thinking there might be a problem with her car. Holliday, of Welland Road, Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, immediately opened the rear passenger door of the car and got into the back, shouting “drive, drive, they’re chasing me”.

When the victim refused and told him to get out, Holliday did so but walked around to the driver’s side, opened the door, and tried to grab the ignition keys and the steering wheel. Holliday put his hands around the victim’s neck, attempted to pull her out the vehicle, ripping her shirt and necklace in the struggle.

The victim’s daughter, who was close by at the time, assisted in intervening and getting Holliday away from the vehicle until police arrived. Following a trial at Cambridge Crown Court, which concluded on Thursday (12 February), Holliday was found guilty of common assault and was jailed for two years and five months, which included the activation of a two-year suspended sentence for supplying class A drugs.

DC Matt Reed, who investigated, said: “This was a frightening ordeal for the victim who was targeted at random by Holliday. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for him.”

The Hindu community will be forced to find a new place of worship

Peterborough City Council’s ruling cabinet has agreed to sell the New England Complex, home of the city’s Bharat Hindu Samaj Hindu temple.

At its monthly Cabinet meeting last night (February 10), councillors agreed to authorise the disposal of the Council’s freehold interest in the much-used Millfield complex.

The council believes the sale will help its attempts to balance its budget. However, the proposed sale of the property will mean the Hindu community who have used the temple for 40 years will be forced to find a new place of worship.

The meeting was attended by supporters of Bharat Hindu Samaj, which itself tabled a bid of £1.3m as part of the bidding process.

Campaigners were hopeful the initial decision to sell the complex made by Cabinet last December would be reversed following fervent appeals by city councillors and the Hindu community. Indeed, the reason this item had been sent back to Cabinet for re-evaluation was due to campaigners convincing the council’s Sustainable Future Scrutiny Committee to call in that initial decision last month.

Vishal Vichare was one of those supporters who attended. He asked the Cabinet: “Why has the council relied solely on financial value when it will have been entitled to balance social value against financial value?”

Councillor Mohammed Jamil (Lab), the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Governance, replied directly: “As part of the bidding process, social value was taken into account and officers from our property board came up with the decision that they did in the manner that they did.”

John Howard, the Conservative councillor for Hargate & Hempsted was invited to address the Cabinet on the matter on behalf of his party leader, Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald.

Cllr Howard sought assurance from Cabinet that the needs of the 13,500 Hindus from across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire who currently use the New England Complex would be accommodated before the new owners took over the complex: “It would be really unforgivable to ask one body to remove another body when it’s a long-standing tenant,” he said, adding “We have a moral obligation, I feel, to make sure that move happens first.”

When eventually asked for a show of hands, the Cabinet agreed to the recommendation to authorise the disposal of the Council’s freehold interest in the New England Complex “with the benefit of the additional and original detail to the preferred bidder”, subject to “appropriate transitional provisions for existing tenants.”

At this point, supporters of Bharat Hindu Samaj left the council’s Sand Martin House HQ, en-masse.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service following the meeting’s conclusion, Cllr Jamil said: “I fully understand their disappointment,” he said,”but let’s turn this disappointment into something where we can work together.

“The council has offered its services to working with the [Hindu] community to find another building. We will work with them and I’m sure we will be able to accommodate them.”

The theft has had a ‘massive’ financial effect on the business

A Cambridgeshire trading card shop has been left devastated after £80,000 worth of trading cards were stolen duirng a break in. Instead of smash-and-grabs at jewellers or cash machines, organised thieves are choosing to strip sellers of the pricy trading cards – exploiting the fact many businesses are independent and lightly protected.

One trader in Peterborough found themselves £80,000 down after a single break-in. He said crooks see card stores as “under the radar” goldmines – with fewer alarms and eye-watering returns. Juliano Scibelli, 34, whose specialist shop Collectors Corner in Peterborough, was ransacked in a night-time raid, said detectives told him incidents like this are becoming more common.

He said: “People aren’t robbing jewellers anymore – they’re robbing trading card shops. Police said it’s all they’ve been seeing over the last few months.”

Thousands of Pokémon, Magic, Lorcana, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh and sports cards were taken from his shop when a thief smashed through a glass door and took the most valuable stock. He left behind cheaper cards, which is why Mr Scibelli believes the thief had done his research. The eventual bill could top £100,000.

Mr Scibelli said: “It’s easier to steal trading cards than nicking a car, you can easily get in and out. Robbing a trading card shop is a way of getting the most money for the least problems.

“If you rob your local corner shop, you’re going to leave with maybe £1,000 – but if you rob a card shop, you’re going to get a lot more than at a jeweller’s. It’s a lot more under the radar.”

Pokémon – created in 1996 and approaching its 30th birthday next month – has exploded back into fashion in recent years. The trading cards, linked to the Japanese animation franchise, can be played, collected and traded, with rare examples fetching staggering sums.

Mr Scibelli said: “Rare cards can be worth between £10,000 and £20,000. I’d say that 99 per cent of the time, the robber has probably scoped out the shop. People know the value in there.”

Mr Scibelli said the emotional toll has been crushing, adding: “It destroyed me. I started by selling £1 cards around 15 years ago and I feel like everything has been shattered because of this.”

Mr Scibelli explained the boom in popularity has also changed who comes through the door. He said: “We used to get lovely people who love the hobby – but then we started getting people asking which cards are the best to buy if they want to make money.”

Despite planning an expansion to a 2,000 sq ft site, he said he’s now questioning the future, adding: “Financially, we were doing well – but this has had a massive effect.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Mr Scibelli rebuild. It can be found by clicking here.

Cambridgeshire Police confirmed that an investigation into the burglary – that happened at some time between 6pm on January 27 and 9am on January 28 – is ongoing.

The vouchers will be sent out via text and email

Peterborough City Council has announced it will be sending half-term supermarket vouchers out to eligible families soon to help them support their children over the school holidays.

The £10 vouchers will be sent out automatically by text and email on Saturday, February 14 using school data and information held by the council.

All vouchers must be activated by 9pm the following day (Sunday, March 15). Any voucher that remains unactivated past this time will be deemed invalid. Activation is done by simply selecting a supermarket to use.

Councillor Katy Cole, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “We are continuing to do all we can to support families in need of help, which is why I’m delighted that once again we will be providing this worthwhile scheme over the February school break.”

The council warned that it may take up to 9pm on the day the voucher is sent for it to arrive. Parents with more than one eligible child should note that their voucher links will probably arrive separately.

Eligible recipients should wait until Sunday, February 15 to contact the council about any missing vouchers.

It is important to note that any children who become eligible for the period up to and including Sunday February 22 will also receive vouchers if an application has been made.

Cllr Cole said she would “strongly urge” anyone who is eligible for the scheme but has not already signed up to consider doing so as soon as possible.

“The free school meals scheme not only helps families save around £450 a year per child but also helps their child’s primary school receive much-needed additional funding,” she said.

Information about free school meals and how to apply can be found here.