Neighbourhood Watch Summit 

         

As a keen supporter of community safety, I was very pleased to accept an invitation to attend the Neighbourhood Watch Summit at the West Midlands Police Club, the Tally Ho on the Pershore Road on Friday 15^th November. I contacted a colleague of mine, Ray Crisp; he helps me run our local NW group in Sheldon, as keen NW supporter I thought I would invite him to attend as well. So on a cold crisp November morning we departed Sheldon to face the rush hour traffic to meet other NW delegates who are supporters of NW or SW.

The Police & Crime Commissioner Bob Jones opened the summit at 9.30am by giving a warm welcome to the 100 delegates from across the Midlands. Bob started by saying what a wonderful job Neighbourhood Watch and Street Watch do for all of the community they represent, also the fantastic support they give to the police especially during these time of budget cuts. He went on to say that this was his first anniversary as a PCC, I have learned a great deal in the past twelve months, he remarked, however, there is much work to be done to improve the service and keep trying to reduce crime with fewer officers, ‘we have to work smarter and use the modern technology’ he said.

The conference continued with a by James Madden, NHWN Chairperson, he started his talk with concerns over the structure of NW, he wasn’t very happy about NW Co-ordinators and members being way down the league in the structure, he said they should have a higher profile because these are the ones on the front line.

Chief Superintendent Alex Murray, Commander for Birmingham East was next at the podium. Addressing the conference he carried on with the theme that the previous speaker had talked about, the need to care for your community. One remark I thought stood out, ‘crime will not flourish in a community that cares’ if a community looks run down and nobody cares, there will always be crime, he went on to say. He said he was very proud of the way that NW teams are run on his patch; however, he would like to see more NW members and an improvement in the way West Midlands Police communicate with them.

Mr John Ford a NW Co-ordinator from Dorridge, did an excellent presentation with lots of slides showing how he combines not only NW duties but environmental ones as well. John has team of people who have cleaned up ponds, pathways and hedges in his area Knowle and Dorridge, a theme spoken about by Alex Murray previously.

The final speaker was Ray Jones, Regional NHW. He presented a new vision of NHW structure for the West Midlands County; however, the delegates were not generally in support, they spoke mainly against this by saying they wanted to improve the lower tier of NW before worrying about a higher structure.

The conference was closed by the Police & Crimes Commissioner Bob Jones, after he had presided over a question and answer session.

 Lol Thurstan 

                                  Lead Co-ordinator for Rosecroft, Chaffcombe & Fulford NW