MONMOUTHSHIRE residents probed the Monmouth MP and senior members from Gwent Police after the spate of burglaries in area.

Villages and towns in Monmouthshire have suffered at the hands of thieves, with 24 incidents reported in the borough since January this year.

MP David Davies, a former special police constable, joined Sergeant David Seymour and North Monmouthshire’s new inspector Arwel Hicks at the public meeting at Monmouth’s Shire Hall last night.

For over an hour, residents – some who had suffered at the hands of car thieves and houses burglaries – heard from the panel, with many airing their concerns over the present police model and risks to Osbaston and its neighbouring settlements.

Osbaston resident Peter Davies asked the panel whether the area of Monmouthshire was failing to receive the same coverage as other towns in the wider Gwent area.

He said: “Bigger towns across Gwent are getting more coverage than we are in the Monmouth area. We are getting the thick end of the wedge in Monmouthshire.

“It seems we are once again losing out to Newport and places of that stature."

Mr Davies continued: “We are all in this together. Not just in Osbaston and Overmonnow. But in Abergavenny and Chepstow. The police need to do more with the forensic analysis found at the crime scenes.”

Inspector Hicks informed the meeting that the majority of the house incidents were happening in the early evening, with many of the criminals suspected of driving to the area to carry out the thefts.

He said: “Who is responsible for the Osbaston burglaries? I don’t know. We are still investigating a scope of lines of inquiry, but we do not know.

“We are operating a number of overt and covert lines of inquiry, some of which I cannot say about, but we know that there are gangs from Cardiff travelling to the area to commit crimes.”

He added that there are presently three individuals on bail, following on from arrests made in connection to burglaries in the Osbaston area.

Inspector Hicks added: “This is my responsibility. I have been in the role for a month and my goal since taking the role is to cut the crime in this area.

“There has been a re-jig in the way Gwent Police are policing and Monmouth falls into the eastern local police area (LPA).”