Alan Crudden the co-ordinator of the Neighbourhood watch as written this piece for Pheasey News. If you are interested in helping out please contact Alan at Pheasey@acrunden.wanadoo.co.uk.

===================================================================

Three years ago, Neighbourhood Watch in the Pheasey Park Farm Area had slumped from over 1500 members to zero.

As the Chair in an adjacent area, I thought this was a shame and, together with the local Councillors, offered to try to set it up again. The key to linking members with a Committee are the Coordinators, who offer to be spokesmen for their `rounds`, which can vary in size from 6 or so, up to 40+. The idea size is about 20.

We were lucky At the initial meeting, a few of the people attending offered to be Coordinators, and we were off.
We are not out to make fortunes. Membership is one pound per family for a year. For that we do 4 magazines, which give hints and tips on how to prevent crime in the house, in the car, or while walking the pavements. We also publish a list of crimes which have taken place, and what is happening in our community.

Because of the increase in crimes in Park Farm, this year we have had a great increase in volunteers, so membership has rocketed. Collections are still being made, but we hope that we will have between 600 and 700 members. This may not sound a lot to some, but it has increased each year over the three years, and has been a lot of work. We cover both Pheasey and Park Farm areas.

So why haven`t you heard about us.

The answer is that we rely on our marvellous Coordinators who volunteer in the first place, and are responsible for their own patch. All they do to start with is deliver the magazines 4 times a year, and collect the Subscriptions once a year. It is impossiible for us to contact members individually, to deliver the magazines to them over the year and to keep them in touch.

So if you can spare 20 minutes for 3 times a year, and a little bit more once a year, why don`t you volunteer to be a spokesman for your neighbours. We would like to have all the households in Pheasey in our Neighbourhood Watch.

What do we do? Let you know in another article.