New security measures are planned for three Holme Valley co-op stores after a series of robberies.

Central England Co-op is rolling out further improvements to deter criminals and protect staff and customers at its food stores in Yorkshire, including those at New Mill, Thongsbridge and Wooldale.

The retailer said it already had a range of measures in place to keep people safe and was actively promoting the fact that targeting convenience supermarkets is not “worth the risk”.

External motion detectors are being installed across dozens of sites and a centrally-monitored CCTV system is also being fitted which allows colleagues to call for assistance at the touch of a button.

The Examiner has reported several incidents at Co-op stores across the area. In once case – not involving a Central England Co-op store – a persistent thief was convicted by Kirklees magistrates last year after fleeing from a Co-op store with £49 of chocolate bars sticking out his pocket. There have also been instances of store staff tackling thieves and detaining them until police arrive.

Marianne Nyambo, loss prevention manager at Central England Co-op, said: “We are aware that incidents such as robberies and ATM thefts are frightening for store colleagues, who are our first priority.

“We are doing everything we can to prevent incidents like this from happening, but if something does happen we offer them support and counselling both from within our business and specialists.

“We work closely with police forces across the 16 counties in which we trade in order to protect our colleagues, customers and community.”

She said: “We already have full CCTV coverage in all our stores, have increased our provision of security guards and reduced incident response times.

“We have now secured funding to put in place further measures to try and ensure that people are kept safe.

“We will be using a central monitoring system that will allow colleagues to press a button to alert a special control room who will then be able to watch what is happening on CCTV and call for immediate assistance from the emergency services if required.

“This will allow for quicker support for colleagues as incidents are escalated quicker and will also help increase colleague’s perception of safety and security, something of which has happened when the system has been installed elsewhere across our business.

“External motion detectors will also be installed outside of our food stores and will be activated outside of trading hours. When activated they will switch on CCTV cameras to record any out of hours activity and contact police if needed.

“These measures, along with the ones we already have in place, will hopefully deter criminals and, most importantly, ensure our colleagues and customers feel safe.”

The monitoring will be overseen by Co-op Secure Response, part of the East of England Co-op. Its Alarm Receiving Centre is monitored round the clock and uses state-of-the-art technology to monitor almost 7,000 CCTV cameras across the country.