HARINGEY ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCHES

FORMERLY HORNSEY AND WOOD GREEN ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCHES)

MINUTES OF THE

QUARTERLY MEETING & AGM

Held at the Civic Centre, Wood Green N22
08th September 2010 at 7.30pm

Present:

Speakers
Chief Inspector Sonia Davis
Georgia Forde & Sally Dickson - Trading Standards
Inspector John Forde

1. INTRODUCTIONS & APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
The Chair welcomed all to this quarterly meeting and sent best wishes to Ralph who was absent as he has been unwell. He also thanked Pauline and Rosemary for the extra help they have provided in Ralph’s absence.

2. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
The minutes were accepted as a true record of the last meeting. There were no matters arising.

3. CHIEF INSPECTOR SONIA DAVIS – Safer Neighbourhoods
Sonia has been a police officer for 20 years. She came to Haringey as a sergeant 9 years ago before leaving to join the Mounted Branch, when amongst other things she escorted the Queen at Trooping the Colour. She became an inspector and went to Tower Hamlets where she played a role in the Counter Terrorist team. She has now been back in Haringey for 5 weeks and sees that Neighbourhood policing has improved vastly since she was last there. She is now responsible for all of the SNTs as well as the Safer Transport, Safer Parks and Safer Schools Teams.

Despite the imminent cut backs, she is confident that Neighbourhood Policing will not be too badly affected as it is so beneficial and successful.

There are 170,000 Neighbourhood Watches in the UK covering 6 million households. Sonia pledged to do everything she can to support the NW groups and help develop them as much as possible. She welcomed the idea that members of the group raise any issues that they may have with the way things are done by the police.

Questions Which cars have you lost? How many? And where?

We had 3 lease vehicles, one has already gone and the other 2 are going. Although it’s convenient for SNTs to have them they are a luxury rather than a necessity. No emergency response vehicles are being gotten rid of.

When will the Sgt and PCSO be replaced in Alexandra Ward?
Unfortunately we can’t stop officers’ career development. I have asked all my inspectors to tell me where they have vacancies and I am going to a meeting about it with the personnel department soon. We are quite picky with who we recruit as SNTs take a certain kind of person.

Can our SNT be moved into a local office on their ward? Are there any policy changes coming?
Originally the idea was to have every SNT based in their own ward, but now the funding for that has dried up and that is unlikely to change. The Muswell Hill Team is trying to rent an office, but is not sure yet whether they can get it. They are considering brigading the quieter areas, but as things stand there will be no major changes. That may all change after the spending review in October.

Do you have any influence over the local Bobbies on bikes? At the moment they ride in dangerous ways.
Pauline agreed to talk with the questioner after the meeting to get more details of the specific officers to pass on.

Sonia asked whether the group were doing anything to recruit younger members.
It was pointed out that there is a forum called HYPE who sometimes attends meetings.
Rob suggested they be invited to a meeting to give more details of what they do. Everyone agreed that this should be done.

A co-ordinator pointed out that young people don’t like going to formal meetings like these, they want something that will make them aware of the issues that affect them. Co-ordinators have been getting disheartened recently by as they struggle to keep people’s interest. Rob responded that that people do appreciate it. Even if people don’t want to attend meetings and show much appreciation residents still feel reassured by the fact that there is a neighbourhood watch and a co-ordinator living locally. Pauline added that everyone wants to join when things are going drastically wrong, but when they are being very successful people put in less effort because there are no big issues.

Inspector John Forde suggested forming a working party and having a half day Saturday meeting to look at where we are with NW and what can be done to grow it further and get more youth engagement etc. The group agreed this is a very good idea and John, Pauline and Rob agreed to liaise with Ralph to see whether this can be organised. John added that the group have contacts with HYPE and the CPCG with whom they could arrange for some youngsters to address the group.

4. GEORGIA FORDE & SALLY DICKSON – Trading Standards
Rogue traders are regularly in the news and it is a serious problem throughout the UK. Doorstep selling is not illegal and there are a lot of legitimate traders, however there are a lot of rogue traders who will make a very small quote for work that they claim needs doing and then charge vastly more.

They particularly prey on vulnerable people and charge large sums of money for poor work or even no work being done.

Never invite an unknown caller into your home, remember: No Appointment No Entry.
When rogue traders target people they often draw people in with very low prices. The selling is often aggressive and they claim to be members of trade associations.

When Trading Standards hear of someone being a victim of rogue traders they can’t just arrest the people concerned. They first have to gather enough evidence. Information is put onto a large database but it is often a slow process. Even something as simple as a phone number or vehicle registration is useful and will be put onto the database.

Two successful cases from this month:
Wales: A victim was charged £9000 for work that was valued at £1200. The group eventually took over £200,000 and tried to take over ownership of the victim’s home. Scam busters managed to link these people to other offences and resulted in the offenders being tried for money laundering at the Crown Court.

A tarmacing gang were caught after targeting vulnerable victims. The gang were arrested and bailed twice but continued to commit similar offences. As part of the investigation, 900 statements were taken and over 1200 items exhibited. The outcome was 2 people getting 15 years and 2 months imprisonment, vast amounts of money and assets were also confiscated.

When prosecutions are made a lot of money tends to be confiscated which helps. Scambusters has proved very successful and Haringey was the first borough to prosecute someone with Scambusters.

They tend to target people with overgrown, unkempt appearing houses. It makes it obvious that an old person lives there and so they become a prime target. Often the rogue traders will leave half way through the job. This leaves a job clearly half finished and so makes people a target to more potential rogue traders.

To recognise a reputable trader make sure they have ID cards. Get the name of the company and call the number in the phone book rather than calling the number the traders give you. When paying more than £35 in your home you have cancellation rights – you should always get a 7 day cooling off period. If in doubt simply say no, you don’t buy goods or services at your door, or that you need to compare prices or consult your partner/kids etc.

If you suspect anyone contact your SNT who have a good relationship with the Trading Standards.

Questions:
(Rob) How can the community help you?
Call us when you suspect an issue, but also help people who are less able to ensure their houses are kept in good condition.

Do you put information in any local publications such as Haringey People?
A leaflet has recently been created and we may try to get it into Haringey people. Pauline pointed out she does a newsletter which she regularly puts information on this topic into.

(Lauritz) I would like to see Cold Calling Zones set up in Haringey. They work similarly to NWs.
Dave Grant is very keen to do that. He has done it in another borough. We are due to be having a meeting about this soon. The problem is that they are unenforceable.

One of the most effective ways of communicating with people is through the noticeboards. They get looked at by a lot of people and could do with small posters with information on how to identify rogue traders. Get the information to us co-ordinators and we will put them up on the noticeboards. A long time ago a number of stickers were issued which people could stick on their front door saying they don’t trade on the doorstep etc. Can we get more?
If you contact the Office of Fair Trading or us then we can get some more for you. Also all of the leaflets can be downloaded from the internet.
It is not just the elderly who are affected.
That is true but we generally get mainly people 60+ phoning up.

If people suspect they may have been a victim what sort of support will they get to get the work checked for safety etc?
In terms of electrical work we can contact organisations which will organise for inspectors to go out. Also sometimes the Health and Safety Executive will send someone to inspect, but we don’t have our own inspectors although can help you get one.

John: Noel Park team are having an event at 14:00 on 21st November at the Salvation Army hall involving some young actors to try and show potential victims how to identify offenders. If you know of any vulnerable people who would benefit contact Pauline.

5. OPEN SPACE including update from Inspector John Forde
We now have 170 watches on the West of the Borough, 109 on East. We are gradually getting closer to 300. The watches we have are also high quality.

This month:
Northumberland Ward had a joint action between, police, fire service and a number of other agencies. It was aimed to increase awareness of agencies working well together, was very successful and will have another one in Harringay Ward soon.

Wednesday 20th October at 09:30 there is a visit to the Crime Museum at Scotland Yard; there are still a few spaces, if you want to go speak to Pauline.

Sad News: Ron Jones a longstanding co-ordinator passed away in June, condolences sent to Ron’s family and friends.

If anyone knows anyone who is interested in becoming a Special Constable contact Pauline or John. As we move towards the Olympics the Met are trying to boost the numbers to 5-6000 primarily to assist with the Olympics. Anyone 18-60 can do it. It’s 4 hours a week with full training and equipment; you get a warrant card which gets you free tube/train travel

AOB
Wendy Hill:
Magistrates in the Community, known as MAGIC spoke to the group a while ago and offered to do further presentations to individual neighbourhood watches. If you want to organise such a talk for your watch contact Kevin Fitzpatrick: pchops@dial.pipex.com 080 8801 4280.

Websites relevant to the rogue traders will be put onto the website. There is a scams page on the site already.

Date of Next Meeting
7.30pm 09th November 2010

Venue TBC

UPDATES

For more information regarding the Havens see http://www.thehavens.co.uk
For your ward crime statistics, go to http://maps.met.police.uk, put in your postcode and explore the various options.

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