WYCHAVON is in the 20 worst parts of the West Midlands for bicycle thefts, new data shows.

Government figures have the area ranked 18th for bike thefts following a 2020 which saw 77 bike thefts.

This works out as an average rate of 65 per 100,000 people.

Of all the regions in the West Midlands, Worcester came out as the worst for bike thefts with 328 per 100,000 people in the city.

The picture in the West Midlands is improving, with the number of thefts reported falling in the last few years.

When grouped and split into the UK’s 12 regions, the West Midlands ranked as the third best region for bike theft last year with a rate of 75 reported thefts per 100,000 residents.

Whilst still some way over that of the safest region - the North West - which had a rate of just 55, the West Midlands’s rate was six times lower than Greater London which topped the table with a rate of 492.

Worcester was shown to be the worst area for bike theft within the West Midlands with a rate of 328 thefts per 100,000 residents.

This was then followed by Coventry (119) and Stoke-on-Trent (110).

When looking back over the previous four years, incidents within the West Midlands appear to be moving in the right direction.

Consistently ranking within the top third safest regions with a rate of 117 in 2017, the number of reported bike thefts had steadily fallen year-on-year showing a marked improvement for riders.

The specialist cycling insurer Bikmo has unveiled a brand new bike theft tracking tool for public use.

Available to all for free, riders across the country can now view reported thefts on an interactive heatmap.

Showing incident rates across England and Wales - taken from publicly available Police data - London’s financial centre, the City of London, came out on top as the worst area for bike theft.

Figures for the whole of 2020 also showed a dip in thefts compared to previous years, despite reports of huge spikes in the first half of the year.  

Bikmo’s new heatmap shows bike thefts in England and Wales for the whole of 2020.

Overlaying this with population data, areas are then given a rate of theft per 100,000 residents.

Showing a live table of the worst and safest areas for bike theft, cyclists can now view theft trends in their local areas and identify hotspots of reported incidents.

Helping riders to make more informed choices about where to safely lock their bikes, the new tool aims to reduce overall theft; something which is of increasing concern to new and returning riders during the Pandemic.

For more information and to see the full data for the UK, go to bikmo.com/uk/