'Not a single call' (From Witney Gazette)

'Not a single call'

9:00am Friday 29th September 2006 in Witney By Phil Vinter

A NEIGHBOURHOOD Watch co-ordinator says West Oxfordshire District Council is failing to keep the community informed of problems on an estate.

Dennis Townsend, who runs the Neighbourhood Watch group on the Smiths Estate, in Witney, says he has not received a single message about incidents in the area for the last three months.

He said the breakdown in communication began when the previous area co-ordinator, who provided the link between the police and the group, left at the beginning of the summer.

Mr Townsend says that since then nothing has been passed on to him, and he fears the community may not be receiving vital information about conmen and other criminal activities taking place on the estate.

He said: "The group has been going for 12 years, and when we first started, it was extremely good. We got messages coming though all the time. If someone came to someone's door pretending to be from an electric company, we would know about it straight away.

"The previous co-ordinator used to keep us regularly informed of what was going on, so we could forewarn people about incidents in the area. But I have not had a single call about anything over the summer."

"The police did call a meeting recently where they expressed how important they felt the Neighbourhood Watch group was, but it is only as useful as the information you get."

"You can only keep people informed about what is going on and about any undesirables knocking around if you know about it yourself. People should not have to rely on the paper to find out what is going on when there is a neighbourhood watch co-ordinator living a few doors away."

West Oxfordshire District Council said somebody had just been appointed to fill the role. Bill Oddy, head of community safety, added: "Although the partnership communications officer post has been vacant, all messages have still been sent out.

"They are targeted to areas where there have been incidents. If a message has not been received, it is likely that there have not been any incidents.

"1,500 people across the district receive crime-related messages, and we encourage anyone who would like to receive these to contact the partnership communications officer, on 01993 861640."