Creative RE-STRUCTURING of Safer Neighbourhood Teams and other policing news.

Many of our members had already received a briefing about this at the Joint Wards Panel meeting, on 28 June, and were resigned to the information given.The Harrow Police have suffered cuts like all other London Boroughs.We are,regretfully, losing FIVE Sergeants,just like neighbouring Brent.There simply is no option.

It is no secret that the Metropolitan Police Service is having to re-structure their SNTs, in an effort to reduce staffing costs, and manage smaller budgets much more efficiently and creatively.The model of the Safer Neighbourhood teams will remain as before but some of our Wards will share a Sergeant.This is termed "a change in the SUPERVISION model".

Kenton West and Kenton East,Hatch End and Pinner South,Headstone North and South,Rayners Lane and West Harrow plus Wealdstone and Marlborough will all have one Sergeant each shared between their teams.However,the Ward panels may still remain separate ,should the local communities prefer that.This seems to be the favoured model.

This will allow stretched resources to be used more flexibly and real time response to emerging problems dealt with much more efficiently and quickly.We will be watching carefully to see how this works in Harrow.

The local Police are piloting a COMMUNITY BOARD made up of a number of people from different sections of the community,including Chairs of Safer Neighbourhood Panels, and will be using them as a sounding board to make real-time decisions to deal with specific emerging issues.This Board will invite different members from time to time so that many get the opportunity to serve their local community and help in the decision-making process.

We also presented our quarterly accounts to the membership for the current finacial year.This was well received and queries answered satisfactorily.Our accounts for the previous two years are still being formatted with the help of Harrow Council.We are endeavouring to present these to our members at the September 12 meeting of the HPCCG in an easy-to-follow format and are confident they will find everything in order.

Our thanks to Borough Commander,Dal Babu and GLA member,Navin Shah,for their unreserved endorsement of our funding spends for the past two years.

Any reservations expressed by Cllr.Hall have been clarified at great length by myself. We will be happy to share these details with our members.Its high time we concentrated on the business in hand and progressed forward to robust accountability of our policing in Harrow.

The Borough Commander expressed concern at the increase in RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY---a London-wide phenomena--which is also hurting Harrow.Our Police is doing their best to tackle this crime but we must also take all necessary common-sense precautions---simple things like shutting doors and windows and remaining alert during the summer months,looking out for neighbours who may be holidaying and keeping valuables out of sight both in the home and in our cars.This would help enormously in deterring burglars.

The use of SMARTWATER is another good deterrent so please ask your local Police to help you get this and help beat the burglars.Please also realise there are opportunist Street robberies.Kindly cover your jewellery and valuables when you go out.Keep a special watch on your hand-bag and valuable items such as mobile phones.

We had an excellent turn-out of NEIGHBOURHOOD CHAMPIONS at the Kadwa Patidar Hall in Kenmore Avenue,Kenton on July 5,for the INAUGURAL NEIGHBOURHOOD CHAMPIONS CONFERENCE which I attended.Good to see so much positive interest and close working of neighbours in their local areas plus with their local teams.Harrow is very fortunate to have this scheme in place.

I am also a Neighbourhood Champion now and am learning alot from leading ones like Vivienne Hart,who is from our Rayners Lane Ward.Chief Inspector Nick Davies and portfolio holder,Cllr O'Dell gave speeches and opened the Conference.Corporate Director Brendon Hills also congratulated them on an well put-together Conference.Much intelligence was captured and will undoubtedly be put to good use.HPCCG has offered to help publicise and raise their profile.We invited those present to attend our HPCCG meeting the following Monday and learn first-hand about the changes in local Policing teams and other relevant information.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Chair of MPA, KIT MALTHOUSE , came along with the North West Area Commander,CHRISTINE JONES,to speak with local citizens about Policing changes and what the landscape may look like in the next few months.It was an MPA/MPA ROADSHOW which people from neighbouring boroughs also attended.They were pleased with Harrows over-all performance.

You will have heard about the AWARD won by HARROW COUNCIL as Best Council for this year in the UK.The use of Smartwater,our Neighbourhood Champion scheme,robust tackling of ASB and many such initiatives played their part in getting us there.

I also attended an excellent LIFE AWARENESS PRESENTATION arranged by our RAYNERS LANE SNT and initiated by John Duggan,on July 12.The entire team led by Sergeant Paul Culver turned up to ROXBOURNE JUNIOR SCHOOL and helped educate the Year 5 and Year 6 children(180 total) about the dangers of CYBER CRIME,KNIFE CRIME and also DRUGs.My special thanks to our SNP member,Headmaster Richard Cokayne for allowing us the use of his school and for arranging everything so professionally.Of course,the efforts made by the RAYNERS LANE SNT deserve much praise.It would be great to see this programme rolled out through all our Junior Schools.

MAYOR Cllr MRINAL CHOWDHURY also attended in full regalia,at Mr Cokaynes request.The children realised what dangers they may have to face once they move upto Secondary school.They really enjoyed handling the small individual boxes of look-alike drugs and are learning from their school about their harmful effects.

My grateful thanks to IGNITE for turning up and doing such a good job and for bringing these items for demonstration.

The HPCCG has sponsored HOME SECURITY KITS as well as special booklets for NEIGHBOURHOOD CO-ORDINATORS to provide them with a ready reckoner and enable better outcomes for their neighbourhoods.We are very hopeful this will help address some of our local crime and empower the Champions as well.

As Harrow gets busier and busier this summer and we all get into the spirit of these care-free months please remember to take extra care and keep your homes,property and person safe.

We are still one of the safest boroughs in London but must not become careless.Have fun and stay safe.

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