Looking out for each other - Neighbourhood Watch

Tamesiders are being encouraged to look out for each other and foster a sense of community by joining in with their local Neighbourhood Watch scheme.

The project, which began life 37 years ago as ‘Home Watch”, aims to make communities safer and help pass on information to the police by bringing neighbours together.

Tony Moran has been the borough lead for Tameside Neighbourhood Watch for the past 12 months - a time of great upheaval. The rebranding began late last year and is currently culminating in a week of action this week [17-23 June]. Tony explained: “We promote other things besides protecting property, it’s about people living in a community. I think we’ve lost our way in the UK a little bit but I’m sure with the good intentions and the full support from Greater Manchester Police and our other volunteers we will do it.”

Tony says that when he joined the system was in a mess, with no record of groups or individuals in one place. “My role was to go round so we’ve got some excellent established ones. One of the longest standing is Denton West in Dane Bank. They’re very proactive and they’ve been going a long time, I’m going to say at least 25 years.”

He says the idea behind Neighbourhood Watch is a popular one with residents. “People want to belong to a neighbourhood, I’ve been surprised how many genuine people care about their community in many aspects. I think throughout the country we’ve lost that neighbourhood feeling - we’ve all gone very isolated - and I think the need to bring that back into society.”

John Gregory, head of Community Safety and Homelessness for Tameside Council is a supporter of the initiative and says that in a time of strained budgets, information passed on by the community can by vital to the police.

“I think its not just from a police standpoint but also from a neighbourhood stand point and a community point of view, neighbourhood watch is a really important source of information and intelligence.

“Through all the cuts that the police have suffered over the last 10 years, the numbers of police officers on patrol has diminished and I think neighbourhood watch fills part of that gap by keeping eyes and ears out on the street in our communities and it also provides a level of reassurance to people.

“Communities should definitely consider coming together and forming neighbourhood watches. The more neighbourhood watch groups that we’ve got, even down to the small groups, the more information and intelligence that comes in. That’s going to provide a very useful base of information for the police.