A village has become the first in the country to receive a new award recognising its efforts in preventing crime.
THE chairman of East Stoke Neighbourhood Watch, Mr Sid Davies, left, and Mr Ian Ackerley, with the award, with, from second left, Mrs Sue Saddington, Mr Richard Butler, Mr Mike Sheldon, and Mr Kevin Brown of Nottinghamshire Police. 200212MW2-3
East Stoke received the first Safer Villages award at the national Secured By Design conference in Manchester.
It means the village will now be the benchmark by which other villages around the country are judged for future awards.
The award was collected by Mr Kevin Brown, Nottinghamshire Police’s architectural liaison officer, and was brought back this week to be put on display.
It was accompanied by a £1,000 cheque that will go towards any future upkeep costs of the security equipment in the village once the two-year guarantee runs out.
There has been £50,000 spent on CCTV cameras and other crime prevention measures, which have been in place for a year.
Most of the money was provided by Nottinghamshire County Council’s local improvement scheme.
Each home in the village had a crime prevention survey to identify if they needed an intruder alarm or door and window locks, which were all provided free of charge.
The chairman of East Stoke Neighbourhood Watch, Mr Sid Davies, said: “It has boosted the confidence of the village and improved the quality of life.”
Mr Davies said there had still been incidents but the 15 cameras in the village, including three with number plate recognition technology, meant they had been followed up by police.
Before the scheme there were only four cameras.
Police Community Support Officer Mike Munro said they had some great results from the cameras, particularly in tracing suspicious vehicles.
A retired assistant chief constable, Mr Ian Ackerley, who was involved in the East Stoke scheme, said its success was about how it promoted confidence and security in the community, rather than looking at crime figures.
He said there would not be a dramatic effect on crime reduction because the figures were so small anyway.
The county councillor for East Stoke, Mrs Sue Saddington, said the cameras would be more important now the A46 bypass had been built.
“A village that doesn’t have heavy traffic is going to be more vulnerable,” she said.
