Some may know about the recent break in of the two bike sheds at St Mary's. I was one of those unfortunate enough to have my bike stripped for some parts, and I was the most lucky; they only took my back wheel, chain and lights, and sliced a brake line, while the others were worse off. Another student found their bike ruined hours before me, and informed security and the police, yet despite all bikes having an ID tag provided by halls, security did not think to check the other bike shed had not been broken into and did not notify myself and the other owner of a damaged bike. Because of the fact this theft was allowed to happen, we will now all have to pay out of our own personal insurance policies.

This has brought to my attention the fact that our security don't have live camera feeds to view at night, that only one guard is on duty but can still be called out leaving the village with no security at all, and that it isn't protocol for them to ensure no other similar  property was harmed if a crime occurs or even just review the tapes promptly to check this.

I am concerned not only about the risk of theft, but of the risk of students potentially having violent crime happen to them, have a medical emergency, be spiked and return here before falling unconscious, all outside at night without being noticed by anyone. Everything has risk, yes, but we pay for security, so they should be given the tools to properly monitor what is happening and there should not be the opportunity for criminals to spend all the time this man did without being caught.

I'll be liaising with a member of Undeb who is also looking into the issues with security cameras, and I hope we can get the university to mitigate the risks there clearly are at the moment.