Organisers of an anti-bike theft roadshow in Ipswich are holding another event on Saturday 1st March.
Last week, local residents went to Whitton Sports Centre for advice from the Community Safety team at Ipswich Borough Council and Suffolk Police. Saturday’s event will be at Maidenhall Sports Centre.
The sobering fact is that more than 500,000 bikes are stolen annually in the UK and only five per cent are returned to their owners. "Gone in 71 seconds" is the figure quoted by Halifax Building Society as the average time a thief needs to steal a locked bike.
Residents are being asked to consider fitting radio frequency transponders to their bikes. These miniature tags are hidden in the bike frame and have a unique code number. This identifies the bike (and owners' details) which are registered on a 24 -hour database accessed by all UK police forces.
The first 50 bike owners who attend the Maidenhall session will have transponders (worth £12) fitted free of charge.
John Bishop, of the Community Safety Team, said: "Ipswich is fighting back against bike crime. We are delighted with the response to last Saturday's roadshow, where we quickly ran out of free bike transponders and free shed alarms. My advice to residents intending to go to Maidenhall is - come early, beat the queues and remember - crime costs and prevention pays."