Crime prevention garden showcased at Hampton Court

Although not what you would imagine the NBCC to share with the business community we are keen to support crime prevention initiatives that could help protect outdoor areas and that businesses can use to support their customers. This also highlights the important role gardening and landscaping businesses have in reducing burglary!

The garden has been created by two students at Capel Manor College’s School of Garden Design and Plantsmanship in Enfield, after they won a competition sponsored by Secured by Design (SBD), the national police crime prevention initiative, and run in close collaboration with the Met Police Designing Out Crime Team in North East London and the College. This will be the first time that a garden like this will have featured at this prestigious annual show, which runs from 2-8 July.

The two students, Lucy Glover and Jacqueline Poll, won last year’s competition whilst in the final year of their foundation degree course in garden design at Capel Manor College. They were given four weeks to design their city or urban garden, which could be for a front or rear garden and should ‘provide an enjoyable and safe space, which has well protected boundaries, preventing easy access to the rear and protects everything within’.

Crime prevention features displayed in the garden include prickly plants on top of walls and sheds to prevent burglars climbing on them, security cameras and lights on outside doors, gravel pathways and driveways which make it harder for burglars to go unnoticed and a secure shed with items inside like bikes and gardening tools marked with SmartWater Forensic traceable liquids to help identify them if they are stolen.

Sergeant David Lucy from the Met Police said; “This has been a great opportunity for the Met Police to partner with the amazing staff and students at Capel Manor College. Simple and affordable crime prevention measures, such as those on display here, add an extra layer of security and will help protect your home or business”.

He added; “The crime prevention measures and principles on display here can be replicated in a number of environments including in the protection of outdoor spaces in the business community. These include measures such as security rate doors and windows, effective securing of out buildings, boundary treatments and forensic marking assets, which are important all businesses large or small”

Secured by Design CEO Guy Ferguson said; “This fantastic garden is a unique blend of security which looks ascetically pleasing. It’s well worth a visit to come down and see and hopefully you will be able to pick up some ideas about how you can make your garden more secure and look absolutely fantastic”.

To see more photographs and video clips visit @metpolice_uk Instagram feed for highlights or follow @securedbydesign on Twitter. Updates will be posted throughout the week. More information and tickets can be found here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-hampton-court-palace-flower-show

A series of programmes highlighting the Hampton Court Flower Show is currently running on BBC2 at 9:30pm. The Hampton Court Flower Show is open to the public until Sunday 8th July.