Sticking it to the Doorstep Rogues

3.37.27pm GMT Sun 20th Feb 2005

Householders in Milton Keynes now have a new weapon to help them 'stick it' to dodgy doorstep traders.

A total of 20,000 stickers bearing the no-nonsense message: "We do not buy or sell at the door" are being provided by Milton Keynes Council's Trading Standards team, working with Thames Valley Police and the the Milton Keynes Safer Community Partnership.

They are being distributed via Neighbourhood Watch, Age Concern, parish and town councils, street wardens, medical centres and Thames Valley Police.

They are also available from Milton Keynes Central Library as well as libraries in Bletchley, Newport Pagnell, Olney, Stony Stratford, Westcroft, Wolverton and Woburn Sands, and from the mobile library.

There is a supply at reception in the Council's Civic Offices, and Citizen's Advice Bureau offices in Bletchley and Milton Keynes. A downloadable version is also available from Milton Keynes Council's Trading Standards web site (www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/milton-keynes).

Trading Standards advice manager Adrienne Larkin said: "We are very concerned at the number of people who buy home maintenance services - such as 'tarmaccing' and hedge trimming - from people who knock on their doors.

"We appreciate that it is sometimes difficult to say 'no' when faced with a salesman on the doorstep, so we are hoping that citizens will use these stickers at their front door to stop callers ringing the bell in the first place."