Meeting Reports
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Moffat Neighbourhood Watch
A well attended meeting organised by the local area volunteer watch administrator Hilda Saville was held on 12th November at the St Andrews Church Hall in Moffat. Guest speakers were the local Community Police Officer Andrew Stevenson, Association of Scottish Neighbourhood Watches (AoSNW) Development Officer Lisa Toon and Annandale & Eskdale Watch Administrator and secretary to AoSNW Brian Smith MBE.
Hilda Saville -
LisaToon – Andrew Stevenson
Andrew outlined his role with regard to NW and praised the community for its “community spirit”. He encouraged the watches to continue reporting anything suspicious particularly at this time with a recent increase in crime due to various reasons, like the financial climate and the time of year. He answered a number of questions regarding the type of information needed by the police and by the watch membership
Brian outlined the progress of the AoSNW since his last visit including both improvements to the web pages www.aosnw.co.uk with the introduction of a tool kit to help start and run watch schemes and the employment of the Development Officer. He also outlined the move towards and integrated Dumfries & Galloway Watch Association and the benefits this would have for all watch members giving them a greater voice on local community safety issues and a better bargaining position for funding. To make this work it will need volunteers for four regional watch administrators and a number of area and local administrators to ensure that the movement continues to work efficiently for smooth communication of information. Brian also advised of the D & G web page www.dumfriesandgalwatch.co.uk
Finally he highlighted the availability to watch members of a monitored alarm system for a small hire charge. Annandale & Eskdale is the only area in the country that offers this type of unique service, offering peace of mind when individuals are away from their property.
Lisa who has only been in post for a month outlined her background
of working within the Scottish Courts Service. Lisa then explained how she was
visiting as many watch areas as possible to gain a flavour of all the good work
that is going on, to assist her in her remit of developing neighbourhood watch
and expanding into areas of towns and cities not normally associated with the
watch movement. Lisa advised that her remit was to listen to the membership and
provide guidance to aid with the implementation and running of watch schemes.
Lisa advised that she is based in
At the close of the meeting those attending were able to talk to Lisa and Brian to discuss further issues raised during the meeting.
Neighbourhood Watch Sanquhar Area
Two meetings took place on the 17th October at Sanquhar Police Office and Hillview Kelleholm to see if the Neighbourhood watch schemes for these areas could be revitalised.
Community Police Officer Jodie John and Brian Smith the volunteer watch administrator attended to assist with the discussions and although both meetings were small, due to other local events, they were very positive with regard to re-establishing a thriving Neighbourhood Watch. Brian gave advice on and outlined the requirements to help create a successful watch scheme including the need for a local area administrator to keep updated records to enable the telephone information cascade to work efficiently. The updated information would then be passed to the Watch Administrator to enable the Public Liability Insurance for the schemes to be correct.
At the end of each meeting suitable paperwork was handed out and Brian wished all concerned good luck with their endeavours and offered his assistance if required. We now look forward to reporting that the schemes are up and running in these two areas shortly.