Beech Village Neighbourhood Watch REF: 114

Welcome to Beech, which is a great village in so many ways. Therefore we run a very active and well-established Neighbourhood Watch to protect the quality of life in our community. The Beech Parish Council funds our activities and we have very good support and involvement from our local police force.

The main objective of the Watch is communication to help the Police apprehend felons and to prevent crime in the village. Our aim is to create an atmosphere where villagers feel safe and secure but are alert and responsive to any potential threats so that villains do not see Beech as an easy option.

We have fifteen local co-ordinators that meet twice a year and each co-ordinator liases with the houses in their localities. We have the majority of the houses in the village signed up to the Watch, keeping residents’ contact details secure on our database. Our methods of communication are by the occasional letter, phone and word of mouth, but our preferred method is by e-mail as we reach people very efficiently. If you are a villager with an Internet connection and wish to participate in the Watch then we would be pleased to receive your e-mail address. We have a very strict rule that no contact information will be used for any other purpose than for the Watch and other no circumstance will contact details of any kind will be released to a third party.

 The Beech Village Neighbourhood Watch depends on communication and networking. We have direct contact with the police, enabling us to communicate alerts and information to each of the co-ordinators. They in turn feed this information into their areas. Co-ordinators also feed back information from their areas for the police to check on any suspicious characters and any sinister events. Over the years we have enjoyed some success in assisting the police to keep our village safe. But we must always be alert to protect our property and personal security.

The success of networking information is everyone’s responsibility. Please be alert to anything suspicious, stay in contact with your neighbours and report anything suspicious to your Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator.