MORE than 30 burglaries have taken place in Monmouth since the beginning of the year, local police have revealed.

There were 24 breaks-in during February and 10 in March, Inspector Arwel Hicks told a public meeting prompted by a spate of burglaries in the Osbaston area at the end of 2014.

Inspector Hicks, who took up his role as inspector for north Monmouthshire a month ago, said he didn’t know who was responsible for the Osbaston burglaries.

He told the 100 who attended the meeting at Shire Hall organised by Monmouth MP David Davies – who lives in Osbaston and has himself been burgled – that the police were trying hard to find the criminals responsible.

Many of those at the meeting had been victims of burglary and while there was some praise for the police, there was also concern about the number of officers in Monmouth, the role of community support officers, the use and availability of CCTV, response times and the ‘accountability’ of police.

Resident Peter Davies said: “Ten to 15 years ago we had an inspector three sergeants, a detective and 20 constables policing this town.

“There’s no inspector, no sergeant no detective constable and we’ve got seven (officers) policing this town.

“Having a detective from Abergarvenny on an ad hoc basis is not good enough. We’ve lost out greatly.

“It can’t be right when people were disturbed at the scene of a possible burglary in Osbaston last year, for someone to say ‘sorry I’ve taken 50 minutes but I’ve come (27 miles) from Blaina.’ That is a ridiculous situation.”

Inspector Hicks said detectives were not sent to Monmouth on an ad hoc basis but it was part of their everyday role.

Inspector Hicks said that the Six Nations rugby championship had been identified as a trigger for vehicle thefts so extra officers were drafted in from other areas and he had authorised overtime.

The latest spate of burglaries has seen homes targetted in areas other than Osbaston and, while the 2014 thieves targeted cash and jewellery, the thefts over the last few months have netted other property as well including TVs and computers.

He said more than 100 reports of suspicious activity had been received since January and he appealed for people to inform police of anything unusual.

Town and county councillor Susan White said details of car she had scribbled on a piece of paper and handed to a police officer led to an arrest.

Inspector Hicks said criminals from Gloucestershire, Cardiff and Merthyr had been arrested in relation to offences in Monmouth.

A resident told the meeting he was convinced those responsible for burglaries were not local.

He said: “I don’t think its the local scum. We know the local scum and we can manage them ourselves.”