Issue - meetings

INFORMATION ON SETTING UP NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Meeting: 03/12/2013 - Stoneygate Community Meeting (Item 32)

INFORMATION ON SETTING UP NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

The Chairman of Neighbourhood Watch and Leicestershire Police will advise the meeting on setting up local Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

Minutes:

Roy Rudham, Chairman of Neighbourhood Watch, Sergeant Graham for Safer Neighbourhoods Stoneygate, and PCSO Sally Morgan, Safer Neighbourhoods, Western Park Ward, were present at the meeting to provide information on setting up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme.

 

Residents were told there were 23 Neighbourhood Watch schemes in Leicester, with 28 co-ordinators, and had been running for 20 years.  The scheme was a good way to good way to get to know neighbours, and a good way for the police to get to know the community.

 

It was to the discretion of willing volunteers as to how actively involved they were and normally would enlist the help of other people. This person, as a coordinator, would be a point of contact for residents in the Neighbourhood Watch area. Activities for a co-ordinator included leaflet and newsletter posting, reporting crime to the Police, and sharing information with residents through social media and email A meeting would also be held every few months with the Police, to share information with residents, for example, raising awareness of increased burglaries.

 

Mr Rudham said it cost approximately £250 annually to support a co-ordinator. He added that ¾ million emails were sent each year across the region, for example, police appeals for target areas or city-wide information. Details of useful contact numbers were also provided for residents. Mr Rudham added that Neighbourhood Watch did not receive statutory funding, but became involved with anything that affected the quality of life of residents. One example given was domestic abuse issues, when information would be posted to all houses, not just the household under question. He added that some household insurers also gave a discount on Home Insurance in Neighbourhood Watch areas.

 

Residents asked how the transient population of students in the area would be contacted. Mr Rudham said information would be given to all students on a database, which would be circulated via email. Sgt. Graham said students were four times more likely to be victims of crime, with many of them owning valuable equipment. He added the Police had liaised with university security staff, and offered a bespoke service to offer full security services at properties, but no students had taken up the offer. Sgt. Graham said the Police also had Special Constables who could convey information to Polish residents, and that the Police were looking to produce leaflets in that language.

 

The Police said that poor signs in an area were an invitation to burglars, and should be removed, or replaced if a scheme was still in place in the area. Mr Rudham also informed residents that statistics from the British Crime Survey suggested residents were four times less likely to be a victim if part of a registered scheme.

 

The Chair said if anyone was interested in setting up scheme, they could apply for Ward Community funding to assist them. Further information about neighbourhood watch schemes can be found by sending an email with your query to:

info@neighbourhoodwatchleicester.net

 

RESOLVED:

that the information be noted.