A celebration event for Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators from Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon was held recently at Craigavon Civic and Conference Centre as a thank you for helping to keep their areas of the borough safe.
Around 130 people attended and enjoyed dinner and a quiz as well as a number of presentations from District Commander David Moore and Community Planning Sergeant Billy Stewart.
Neighbourhood Watch continues to grow rapidly within Northern Ireland with over 45,400 households involved in nearly 764 schemes.
In the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon area, there are currently 169 accredited schemes and a number of other areas at various stages of accreditation.
Councillor Maire Cairns, Chair of the PCSP commented: “This event was a fantastic success and was a wonderful opportunity for Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators to get together and share experiences and ideas regarding their schemes.
“By working together, neighbours and communities do a great job of tackling crime related problems and we look forward to seeing even more schemes being set up throughout the borough.”
Sergeant Billy Stewart stated: “Neighbourhood Watch is basically about folks looking out for each other, volunteering
to do that little bit extra and working in partnership with PSCP and PSNI to make our communities friendlier, safer and generally better areas to live, work and socialise.
“As partners, they assist policing by being additional eyes and ears in the community, reporting suspicious activity/vehicles and assisting in getting our Crime Prevention messages out to our communities. This event gave us an excellent opportunity to thank the NHW co-ordinators, from throughout our District, for the work they do all year round.”
This event was organised by the Neighbourhood Watch Task Group which consists of representatives from the PCSP and PSNI.
For more information on Neighbourhood Watch contact Annette Blaney, PCSP Project Coordinator on 028 3831 3607 or email Annette.Blaney@armaghbanbridgecraigavon.gov.uk
