Doctors, nurses and members of the public were encouraged to get on their bikes and ride to a teaching hospital near Norwich to attend a special bike ’surgery’ where cycles were security marked and registered on the national Bikeregister database.

Hethersett and Mulbarton Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) staged the event at Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital as part of Bike Week (13th-21st June) and with the aim of preventing and deterring cycle theft.

The SNT team set up a bike surgery at the entrance to the hospital and were on hand to help mark bikes belonging to staff, visitors and local people, as well as offering general cycle security advice.

PCSO Oliver Butcher said: “The hospital invited us to come along and set up an open surgery where bike owners would be given the chance to get their bikes security-marked by us and entered on the Bikeregister database.”

Bikeregister (http://www.bikeregister.com) is owned and run by Selectamark. Bikes placed on the secure, police-approved database are marked with a unique ID code. Should the bike ever be stolen and then recovered by police, it can be traced back to the owner. The bike marking kits are simple to use, taking about 30 seconds to mark an individual bike. As part of the scheme, each bike owner is issued with their own personal logbook as proof of ownership.

Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital runs a cycle to work scheme to encourage staff to keep fit and to alleviate parking problems on site. Staff are able to park their bikes in specially allocated cycle bays, but there is a risk of opportunistic theft if the bike is not properly secured.

PCSO Butcher continued: “Many of those that came to the bike surgery ride to work on a regular basis and they were pleased to be getting added security for their bikes. They were also reassured that if their bike was stolen, they would at least stand a chance of being reunited with it if it is recovered by police.”

He concluded: “We were very pleased with the response to this event and the hospital has invited us back again to stage another bike surgery using Bikeregister in September.”

For more press information and images, contact: Angela Singleton, Selectamark Press Officer. Mobile: 07905 623 819.

For further information and images contact: Jodie Fisher, Marketing Executive for Selectamark.

Phone: +44 (0)1689 487829
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @bikeregister