ANYONE hanging around at St Aldate’s Police Station (for whatever reason) might expect the base to be on the pulse and at the forefront of the latest police work.

Yet visitors perusing the walls of the reception may have noticed a poster advertising the work of the Thames Valley Police Authority. The A4 sheet explains the committee sets the force’s crime fighting priorities and is keen to hear what you think.

It sounds inviting and inclusive doesn’t it? Except the authority was scrapped and replaced with the police and crime commissioner ... in November 2012.


AS the row over the Covered Market rent rates deepened last week, the two main rivals were nowhere to be seen.

Oxford Mail:

Colin Cook, above, the city council’s executive member with responsibility for the market, and Covered Market Traders’ Association head Chris Farren, below, had both gone AWOL.

Oxford Mail:

The Insider has now been told both were away on holiday. Not together I hope? But perhaps a bit of “together” time lounging beside a pool might do the two a bit of good.

Surely there are not many disputes that cannot be quelled by a bit of John Grisham and a couple of pina coladas.

OFFICERS and a police helicopter were scrambled into action on Sunday when someone reported a man wielding a Samurai sword in Reading.

However, as officers soon discovered, it was no ordinary sword but a lightsaber. A Thames Valley Police spokeswoman told The Insider: “Officers attended and it was quickly established that he was not armed.”

Maybe the mind powers of a Jedi on the dark side of the law have got the better of the police this time?

May the police force be with you....