Through the Public duties I am involved with, I have been made aware that drug related crime was on the increase and that theft from motor vehicles and residential properties was becoming a major problem. Media publicity indicated that the Police Forces all over the country were having difficulty due to financial constraints in coping with this upsurge in acquisitive crime. I concluded that communities needed to become more proactive in protecting their own property.

Horspath in common with most communities urban or rural has a small element of its population who has no respect for anything or any body. In a community like ours these individual are generally well known and easily identified. The incidents of vandalism and criminal damage to Parish Council Property can nearly always be attributed to these known troublemakers. Being close to the urban areas of a large City like Oxford means we are vulnerable to visits from criminal elements that prey on motor vehicles and any insecure property. Being on a well used commuter route also makes us vulnerable to the opportunist criminal.

In 1997, I circulated a number of residents in Blenheim Road on the possibility of setting up a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme. The response was overwhelmingly in favour and by January 1998, the Scheme was in existence. Since then the Scheme has progressively grown to include the whole of the Village with Area Coordinators or NHW Contacts in all areas. In 1999, with the approval of the Scheme’s Annual General Meeting the Coordinators became The Horspath NHW Committee. The Committee Members Consult and communicate by email and telephone holding their own AGM prior to the General Meeting in the early Spring. The Parish Council has supported The Committees efforts to have the whole village covered by Neighbourhood Watch by funding the cost of buying NHW notices, and printing communications and recruitment circulars. There are few commitments made on members and only an Annual General Meeting, held each year in the Village Hall. The Horspath Scheme Committee Policy outlines the way that the Horspath Neighbourhood Watch Scheme Committee has approached the setting up of NHW in the Village. I and my Committee Colleagues recognise how precious time is to individuals and families in the modern world. We also appreciate that privacy is important to the vast majority of residents.

Neville Buckett

Organiser/Coordinator
Horspath NHW Home Watch
August 2007

You can contact Horspath Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator by email.