TENDRING NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

The Tendring District is in the Northeast of Essex, approximately 130 square miles in size
with a population of 138,300 (2012). It has 60 km of coastline. It extends from the River
Stour in the north, to the coast and the River Colne in the south, with the coast to the east and
the town of Colchester to the west. Towns in the district include, Clacton on Sea, Frinton on
Sea, Walton on the Naze, Brightlingsea and Harwich. Large villages in the district include St
Osyth and Great Bentley.
Neighbourhood Watch was set up in the district in 1982 by Gerald Wallington Hayes MBE
who along with Police Sergeant Woods set the ball rolling. In recent years membership has
fallen away but with a new steering group numbers are on the rise and there appears to be a
keenness to join which has never been seen before.
At 1 in 3, the district has the highest proportion of pensioners in the East of England, and this
gives rise to the greater risk of them being targeted as vulnerable people likely to succumb to
rogue traders. To this end we spend a lot of our time, through our coordinators making sure
all are aware of the scams and cold calling prevalent in the district.
Due to the demise of the local Crime Prevention Panel more onuses has been placed on us in
that regard.
As in line with other districts, we do not charge to join NHW and give every assistance and
the tools needed to new coordinators to get their schemes started.
We have our own Facebook group where members can comment or post
warnings.
We can be contacted at [email protected] , however, this address may not be being
monitored at present.
Contacts are: Dave Sexton, Chairperson
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 07900430088

TENDRING NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH REPORT

TO ESSEX COUNTY NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION 15TH MAY 2024

The Chairman and District Coordinator has attended meetings with the Tendring IAG and has been invited to attend a Suffolk and Northeast Essex NHS Live Well  Neighbourhood Team meetings.  We have also been invited to attend the Tendring Parish Council meeting at the end of May to give a short talk on NHW and hopefully recruit some new members.  We have attended two  events this last quarter, the first being the Week of Action in Jaywick organised by Tendring District Council. The second, last Saturday, at the Tendring Police Open Day at Clacton Police Station where we managed to sign -up several new members.  Membership continues to grow, although recruiting from the people who register with the Neighbourhood Watch Networks Alert Database is still around 1 in 10. Several co-ordinators have also reported an increase in their Street Watch member numbers.  The Jaywick Sands NHW Approved Group has been disbanded as the Committee of JSNHW do not have the time to run it anymore. This has resulted in a there being very little TNHW presence in the Jaywick Area.

We continue to submit NHW articles for inclusion in the Tendring Local Update Document published by the Community Safety and Engagement Officers of Tendring Police and for inclusion in the Holland Residents Association magazine.   We are still without a Secretary; we have advertised the voluntary role amongst our membership but there has been no interest shown.   As of this month we are now without a Deputy Chair and a Treasurer who have both stood down from the roles due to ill health and other commitments. We have re-advertised the role of Secretary, and advertised for a Treasurer and a Deputy Chair with the Tendring CVS in their weekly ebulletin to see if we can attract someone to the roles. This is vital for the long-term survival of Tendring NHW and was part of our succession planning for the long-term.  The lack of members volunteering to help at events is becoming an issue and on speaking to other organisations in Tendring this unfortunately does not only apply to TNHW. We are continuing with our Membership Audit to try and achieve an accurate number of members.