Prestbury is a very safe place to live, and well under the Cheltenham borough's crime rate. Recorded crime runs at well under half the borough's rate. Burglary takes a bigger slice of the total than usual, though the total itself is small. The police force's record of charging anyone is the weaker part of the picture, and that problem belongs to the county force rather than the village.
Police figures for the year from June 2025 to May 2026 put Prestbury's crime rate at about 29 per 1,000 residents, roughly 59% below the average for the Cheltenham borough. That came from 242 recorded crimes across the year. The rate is published on its own population base, so it won't match a sum done with the village's headcount. The village's most famous fixture on record is the three-day August fair the Bishop of Hereford was granted in 1249, and the market that came with it was gone by the start of the eighteenth century.
Across the Cheltenham borough as a whole, the rate over the same year was about 72 per 1,000 residents, against Prestbury's 29.
Prestbury has about 3,500 people per square kilometre on average. Unemployment is about 1% and overcrowding about 1%. That describes a spacious, employed, owner-occupied place. None of these figures explains the crime rate, and nothing in them shows why it is low.
The totals are small enough that a few incidents shift any category by several points, so the mix here is a snapshot of one year. Violence and sexual offences made up about 31% of crimes, against about 35% across England and Wales. That category covers everything from serious assault down to common assault without injury, and it is the largest almost everywhere. Anti-social behaviour was about 23%, against 16% nationally. Burglary stood out at about 12% of the total, against about 4% nationally. Criminal damage and arson was about 7%, level with the national 7%. Vehicle crime was about 6% against 5%, and other theft about 6% against 7%. A high share of a small total still means a small total, but a burglar does not need many neighbours to pick from. Ask an insurer how they rate the postcode for theft, and what locks they expect.
What happens after a report depends on the force. Gloucestershire Constabulary charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which puts it 39th of 42 forces on that measure. About 33% of its cases close with no suspect identified. Those figures cover the year to May 2026, with eight of its months reported, and they describe the force across the county. They have no bearing on whether Prestbury is safe, only on how likely a culprit is to be caught.
Prestbury is about as safe as a village near a busy town gets, with crime well under half the borough rate. The burglary share and the force's charging record are the only figures here that call for a closer look.