A NEW study has revealed Newport is one of Wales' bike theft hotspots.

Specialist cycling insurer Bikmo 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.

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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.

According to the aggregated data, a whopping 74,573 bikes were reported stolen in England and Wales in 2020.

When grouped and split into the UK’s 12 regions, Wales ranked as the second best region for bike theft last year with a rate of 58 reported thefts per 100,000 residents. This was extremely close to the safest region - the North West - which had a rate of just 55, and over eight times lower than Greater London which topped the table with a rate of 492.

Cardiff was shown to be the worst area for bike theft within Wales with a rate of 314 thefts per 100,000 residents. This was then followed by Newport (109) and Swansea (80).

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

Consistently ranking within the top third safest regions with a rate of 80 in 2017, the number of reported bike thefts had steadily fallen year-on-year showing a marked improvement for riders.

Commenting on the launch of Bikmo’s new bike theft tracker, CEO David George said: “As more and more people begin to realise the many benefits of cycling during the Pandemic, it is only natural that fears around bike theft will rise.

"We are proud to today unveil a brand new public tool, allowing riders across the country to view annual bike theft rates in their local area and identity hotspots where crimes are being reported.

"The new tool will be regularly updated to provide an ongoing resource to members of the public.

"We hope this will be useful to the fast growing number of riders, and help increase awareness in high-risk areas.”