Celebration event held for Neighbourhood Watch

Deputy Lord Mayor of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Councilor Paul Greenfield at the PCSP, Neighbourhood Watch Celebration with, front from left, Patricia Gibson, PCSP manager, Inspector Leslie Badger and back from left, Christine Kerr, Constable Shane McDonald, Annette Blaney, PCSP, Inspector Brian Mills, Geraldine Cunningham, Sergeant Billy Stewart and Mike Reardon. INBL Neighbourhood Watch

Around 120 people attended and enjoyed dinner and music as well as a number of presentations from Inspector Leslie Badger, Constable Shane McDonald 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 Julie Flaherty, 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.