Hughenden Residents Group

Residents Group

After an incident in August involving youths, mostly not from the area, which frightened young mothers and children enjoying the new adventure playground facilities in Old Station Park, residents had expressed concerns about the safety of users of Old Station Park and about the protection from vandalism of the equipment itself.

This, and the re-opening of Hillhead Sports Club with a new licence, caused residents to think again about the police advice to set up a neighbourhood watch scheme.

Whilst some problems of previous rowdy behaviour were related to the club, some instances of serious criminal activity were being wrongly ascribed to the club's activities.

The conclusion was that a system of identifying genuine risks to the safety and peaceful enjoyment of the Hughenden area was needed. The police suggested Neighbourhood Watch.

In agreement with the HRG steering group, the police had a crack-down over one week in the park area, day and night. This was highly successful, but it would be naïve to imagine the effects to be permanent.

The HRG steering group imagined a system of twitching curtains and night patrols by local vigilantes; we were wrong.

The main point of today's neighbourhood watch is to identify actual or potential risks to the safety of people and property and to promote a sense of security in the community, especially amongst its most vulnerable members. This is achieved in partnership with police and other agencies.

Whilst criminal and other anti-social behaviour is high on the list, wider aspects of safety and well-being are included.

This might involve advice on what to do in the event of bogus callers and other fraudulent schemes operating in the area. There is a quarterly Scottish newsletter with advice on this.

The main thing which is sought from members is that, if they have to call the police to report any incident, they ask for the incident report number (each incident is given a number, you just ask for it) and then advise the Co-ordinator of the number and type of incident.

The point of this reporting is that the police and other agencies will divert resources to areas of proven need. working with the neighbourhood watch committee to tackle particular problems.