This week is National Neighbourhood Watch Week (1-7th June 2025) as led by OurWatch (the National Neighbourhood Watch lead organisation).
VANEL is proud to be part of the Neighbourhood Watch movement and we lead on administration and oversight of Neighbourhood Watch for all of North East Lincolnshire. We also work in partnership with the other local authority areas on Neighbourhood Watch as part of Humber Watch, which helps share best practice across the whole of the Humberside Police Force Area.
This is the 40th year of Neighbourhood Watch Week and we’d like to simply say a huge thank you to every coordinator or volunteer involved with Neighbourhood Watch across our region.
Neighbourhood Watch continues to help provide huge benefits on community safety to local communities and neighbourhoods, so a huge thank you for everything you do.
Our main website for Neighbourhood Watch and all things related to Neighbourhood Networking and communities work is www.nelwatch.org.uk
You can also check the Humber Watch website at www.humberwatch.org.uk
OurWatch (national network) is www.ourwatch.org.uk and info about this Week is here www.ourwatch.org.uk/nwweek
If you’re interested in starting up a new Neighbourhood Watch group in North East Lincolnshire then please do get in touch (via Karl Elliott) so we can chat.
This week we’ve got a few specific initiatives going on.
We’re launching new Neighbourhood Watch Hubs. These are information points in the community where there might not be many formal Neighbourhood Watch groups operating. The info points contain community safety leaflets to pick up and learn from, and VANEL, the Police and other community safety partners are being encouraged to place useful information there too.
They also have a QR code and weblink to let residents report things in their area that they might not be able to report in other ways (not crimes; not 101; not issues that should be reported to Police, Fire or Council). If you’ve got concerns then we’ll see how they can be signposted to the right people who might be able to help.
The Hubs are very new with the first at our own offices, 82 Grimsby Road Cleethorpes (covering Sidney Sussex Ward), and the second at Cup of Joy Cafe in East Marsh (Salvation Army building). Further hubs will be appearing in South, Immingham, Wolds and Waltham Wards in the coming weeks.
More about the new hubs online here.
Also this week sees the launch of our new Stay Safe Guide (perhaps our 8th edition now). This guide is for the whole of Humberside and has been prepared by VANEL for Humber Watch and was sponsored by the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner via North Lincolnshire Community Safety Partnership. (Thanks to partners and funders for making this happen).
The printed guides are packed full of important community safety advice aimed mainly at older people. Over the coming weeks and months you should be able to pick up copies from community venues near you (across Humberside).
The .pdf itself can be downloaded from here and there is a page of information about the guides here. (And visit the Humberwatch site here).
This week we’ve also started our ‘stock take’ of all groups across North East Lincolnshire. So I’ll be in touch with all coordinators on our database over the coming weeks – we just want to make sure we’re up to date with our information and we know how you’re doing and how we can support you.
We’ve already got a new Neighbourhood Watch Group starting up this week in New Waltham and are in discussions with a few more neighbourhoods about getting more groups up and running. Want to start a group in your area? Get in touch with Karl Elliott.
This week is a chance for all Coordinators of local Neighbourhood Watch Groups to communicate more with their members and to say a big thank you to all volunteers involved. Keep an eye on the national page too throughout the week to follow the national conversation
https://www.facebook.com/ourwatch/
And if you’re group needs more Neighbourhood Watch window stickers please let me know – we have plenty we can supply.
Thank you again to all involved with Neighbourhood Watch in North East Lincolnshire and please do keep in touch with Karl.
