New Street Watch appeal in Shefford

Phil Howard, who helped to launch the crime-fighting scheme in Shefford last October, is disappointed that six months on just seven people are active Street Watch members.

Speaking at the Shefford Annual Town Meeting on Friday, Phil said he had been saddened to see that towns with smaller populations had seen greater numbers of volunteers becoming Street Watch members.

He said: “In a town of some 8,000 people, seven Street Watch members is not very many, especially when much smaller areas like Clifton, for example. have considerably more people involved.

“I know for a fact that in Clifton there are more than 10 active members, but in a much smaller community.”

Smaller towns often have more close-knit communities, and this has helped the Clifton scheme to grow more quickly, Phil, a former firefighter, said.

He added: “Word tends to spread more quickly in that kind of town, whereas in somewhere like Shefford it is a bit more like a domitory town, where people tend to be coming and going a lot more.”

For more information on Street Watch or to join up, contact Sergeant Andy Rivers at Bedfordshire Police on 01234 842567, or see www.street-watch.org.uk

For the full story see the Biggleswade Chronicle of Friday, April 22.