About Birstall and Wanlip Neighbourhood Watch
Our activities include practical advice on protecting yourself and your property as well as postcoding of all valuables - including bicycles, power tools and lawnmowers with an engraver.
We can supply Leicestershire Constabulary Vehicle Watch and ‘25’ stickers to protect your vehicle from being stolen.
The Watch holds open sessions - 'Advice Shops' - on the third Saturday of each month in the former council offices on Sibson Road between 10am and 12noon.
We also produce a monthly newsletter and have a News Page to provide members with the latest information on crimes in the area.
The concept of Neighbourhood Watch was brought to the UK in 1982 from the United States by a group of police officers who had visited Chicago.
The first scheme was set up in the village of Mollington in Cheshire in response to a spate of burglaries and was an immediate success. Good news travelled fast and surrounding areas were quick to adopt the idea.
Growth throughout the 1980s was dramatic establishing Neighbourhood Watch countrywide.
There are now over 155,000 Neighbourhood Watch schemes covering over 6 million homes, that’s 27% of UK households. This makes it the largest voluntary movement in the UK.
The first Watch in Birstall and Wanlip was started in February 1990 with less than 30 houses around Curzon Avenue.
The Watch started as a small group of concerned individuals, but quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the Village. The Watch made its name by running campaigns like the National Crime Prevention Week in 1991 and establishing co-ordinator’s evenings and postcoding facilities.
Since those early days, the Watch has grown to almost 3000 member households - that’s well over 50% of all the houses in the two villages.
The Watch was voted the best in the country in 1995 and has been praised by the local and national media for its efforts to improve the quality of life for the residents of Birstall and Wanlip.
To find out how to start a scheme in your area, click here
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