Received this from a concerned resident – felt it worth passing on.

‘I would like to report suspicious activity in our neighbourhood.

A dark grey Renault van with registration number SH16 EKL was parked yesterday 4^th July 2017 for nearly an hour in Croft Close, Utkinton between 8.00 am until 8.55am. It was parked with its left wheels on the North kerb, between the access to the close and house number 1, the van facing the close with clear views of its entirety. One characteristic of this van that would make it stand out from the average same model van is that, although it looks quite new and all dark grey, it has a blue front grille.

Two men were inside the van and they stayed there all the time. The driver had a shaved head, around 40/50 years old and he was reading a newspaper, or pretending to read while clearly observing the properties and activity in our close. The other occupier was on the passenger seat, he was younger, around 30 years old and with short hair. He was looking at his mobile phone, and also to our close. Other than this, the two men did not do anything else for the 55 minutes that they were parked in the close.

At 8.55am I left to take the children to preschool. Once I got in the car the van then started its engine and very slowly proceeded to drive to the end of the close and also very slowly turn around while observing. As their activity was very suspicious, I had also driven slowly to the exit while observing them and that’s how I could see that they were still looking to all the properties. Once I was on my way to Tarporley, they were quickly on my tail and seemed to follow me. They started tailgating me and got really close to the back of my car (with my children inside). They continued to follow until, once in Tarporley High Street, I had to turn right into the Preschool. They then continued to go straight.

This is not the first time that I have seen suspicious activity from this van in our close, and some of our neighbours in the close have spotted it too. In another occasion, it did exactly the same as yesterday but followed one of my neighbours (also with young children) to Tarporley.

It was very clear that this was extremely suspicious activity and would like to report it and also have some police advice about what all the neighbours should do. It worries us that they are monitoring our activities, in preparation for what can only be some suspicious activity or something even worse as they seem to also be tracking us to where our children attend school.’