Newsletter -
2008 April
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MERCHISTON & POLWARTH
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
PUBLIC MEETING / SOCIAL EVENT
Sunday 11 May 2008
2.00 for 2.30pm
Polwarth Parish Church Hall
2.00pm
Exhibition of locks and free advice from Mike Harper of
The Bruntsfield Lockshop
2.30pm
“PROPERTY IN MERCHISTON- PRESENT AND FUTURE”
(security, maintenance, buying & selling)
a talk by
Willie Hunter of local estate
agents Hunters Residential
Followed by the Grand Launch of our new website: www.NeighbourWatch.org.uk
with appropriate refreshments generously provided by Scotmid!
There will be a representative
of the Police present and a written report from Local Community Police
Officer P.C. Alan Hopper
All local residents welcome!
MERCHISTON & POLWARTH NEIGHBOURHOOD
WATCH
NEWSLETTER
10 April 2008
Dear Neighbour,
Welcome to our seventh Neighbourhood Watch Newsletter!
I hope you find it useful and interesting.
OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD
WATCH AREA
We now have TWO logos, one of our own and one
attesting to our membership of the Association of Scottish Neighbourhood
Watches - but are still waiting for someone to come up with a catchy nickname.
Perhaps an acronym incorporating the first letter of the streets in our
area? Prize offered for best suggestion received by our next meeting!
A full list of streets is given at the end of this Newsletter.
REVIEW
Our last meeting, in December, was extremely
well attended – around 80 local residents came along to hear representatives
of the Police and the Fire Service give advice on keeping our homes safe
from crime and fire. This was followed by a wide-ranging Q&A session
and discussion of local issues. A summary of this is available from Tricia
Barclay: telephone 229 1634 email: tricia@neighbourwatch.org.uk
NEXT MEETING
This will be on Sunday 11 May at 2.00 for 2.30pm
in Polwarth Church Hall. See details on front page. Again, we are grateful
to the Minister, Linda Dunbar, for allowing us to use the hall.
WEBSITE LAUNCH
This is one of the most exciting things to happen
in the short life of the Merchiston and Polwarth Neighbourhood Watch!
Huge thanks are due to local resident Nevil Hopley who has designed and
set this up for us. The website will be officially ‘launched’
and explained at our meeting on 11th May, but you can visit it already
at www.NeighbourWatch.org.uk Appropriate refreshments to celebrate the
launch have been generously supplied by Scotmid of Polwarth.
EMERGENCY CONTACT FORMS
Street Co-ordinators continue to supply and
collect Emergency Contact Forms. These are a means (entirely voluntary
and confidential of course) of providing details of any relatives/lawyer/other
contact whom you would like to be informed in the event of emergency.
They can also be used to record information about people who hold keys
to your property. Completed forms are passed on to the police to assist
in case of emergencies – the information is not shared with any
other organisations. Many people have commented that this is an excellent
idea. Ask your Street Co-ordinator if you’d like an Emergency Contact
Form.
POLICE REPORTS
These are produced on a monthly basis and are
available directly from the website (www.NeighbourWatch.org.uk). You can
subscribe for free to the RSS news feed from the website, so that you
know when each one is posted. (If this last sentence means very little
to you - and you want to know more - then look out for this symbol 
on the website!) Alternatively, you can ask your Street Co-ordinator to
let you see a paper copy.
INCIDENT
REPORTS
Quite separately from the Police Reports, we
encourage people in our area to let us know of any crime-related incidents
in which they have been involved or which they have heard about. These
may or may not have been reported to the Police, but neighbours can often
learn from them. One such incident we have been told about concerned a
car parked in one of the residential streets in our area which was "keyed"
(ie the paintwork scraped with a sharp object) one night in February.
There was also “a bit of a rumpus” around 1.15am when people
were coming out of a licensed hotel nearby. There may or may not be a
connection but, if only the incident had been reported to the Police,
the perpetrator might have been tracked down using details of previous,
similar incidents. The Police have a unit at Fettes HQ which stores and
analyses such information. The number of arrests made using this data
is apparently most impressive.
Even though this incident might seem relatively
trivial, it was still an example of anti-social behaviour and really should
have been reported o the Police.
Thank You!
A local resident has written to say that the
follow-up to a break-in at their house, which was spotted by neighbours
and immediately reported to the Police, was indeed “an excellent
example of the benefits of having vigilant neighbours”. The thieves
were caught by the police as they left the property and a guilty plea
was entered later at the Sheriff Court.
This is the whole point of Neighbourhood Watch!
If you see anything at all that you think is
suspicious:
DO PLEASE REPORT IT
TO THE POLICE. The telephone number for St Leonard’s Police
Station, which covers our area, is 0131 662 5000.
Our Community Beat Officer, PC Alan Hopper,
is always very helpful & can be contacted at St Leonard’s Police
Station (0131 662 5022) or by e-mail alan.hopper@lbp.pnn.police.uk
If you live in Polwarth Grove, your Community
Beat Officer is PC John Goodall, who can be contacted on 0131 221 2008
or by email john.goodall@lbp.pnn.police.uk
As always, the important thing is to be vigilant
at all times, and to report anything suspicious you see, not just in your
own home or back yard but in your neighbour’s as well. Looking out
for one another is what Neighbourhood Watch is all about.
NEW POLICE INSPECTOR
Inspector Tom Galbraith has moved on to the
Diversity Unit at Police HQ at Fettes.
We wish him well. His successor, Richard Horan, has sent the following
message:
“As of Monday 17th March, I took over
as your new Inspector for the Meadows, Morningside, Southside and Newington.
Although I look forward to meeting many of you
in the future, I thought it not only polite, but necessary that I give
you a little background.
I have been an Inspector for two years now,
spending a year as the Force Community Planning and Anti-Social Behaviour
Inspector, based at HQ, and latterly a Team Inspector working from Craigmillar
covering the 24/7 response role in the South and East of Edinburgh.
I was not only part of the process that aligned
and developed our current structure of co-operative working within the
City of Edinburgh, but am a passionate believer in partnership working
and community-based policing.
I am fortunate to be taking over from Tom Galbraith, whom I’ve been
privileged to know and call a friend for the last 10 years or so. I personally
believe he’s set the bar high, and I’m determined to build
on the good relationships he’s forged.
What I can do is give a commitment to all of
you, and the residents and visitors to our area, that I will work tirelessly
to provide a transparent, trustworthy, respectful and responsive service
to the people of this City.”
Inspector Horan is based at St Leonard’s Police Station (tel. 0131
662 5000), and his email address is Richard.horan@lbp.pnn.police.uk
Inspector Horan says that he hopes to come along to our autumn/winter
meeting and meet local residents.
BOGUS CALLERS
These continue to be a problem. One particularly
callous scam was perpetrated last month in Merchiston on an 86-year old
widow and her neighbour. A man purporting to be a window cleaner presented
himself at this lady’s front door. He washed a few windows, then
claimed to have to go back to his van to collect something, asked for
payment of £45 and disappeared.
Anyone else who receives a visit from this man
should call the police immediately by dialling 999. Anyone with information
about him should contact Lothian and Borders Police on 0131 311 3131,
or Crimestoppers, in confidence and complete anonymity, on 0800 555 111.
INADEQUATE STREET LIGHTING
This is an ongoing issue. P.C. Hopper, who confirms
that poor street lighting can be a gift to criminals, is still pressing
the City Council for action on the lighting in Polwarth Terrace and Napier
Road, which has been found to fall way below the recommended levels. Former
Cllr Sue Tritton had presented the results of an official survey on this
to the relevant Council departments, but still nothing has been done about
the problem.
At our instigation, local councillors Paul Godzik,
Alison Johnstone, Marilyne Maclaren and Mark McInnes are planning to put
forward - jointly - a full motion asking for immediate action on this.
SOUTH EDINBURGH CRIME PREVENTION PANEL
This is a forum, organised by PC Steve McGill
of the Crime Prevention Unit of Lothian and Borders Police (who spoke
at our December 2007 public meeting), on which Neighbourhood Watches from
all over South Edinburgh are represented. I try to attend its meetings
and to pass on concerns that we have in this area. If anyone has anything
in particular that they’d like me to raise, please let me know.
The Panel obtains, for selling on at cost, small items relating to personal
and home security, such as Personal Attack Alarms (£4), Shed Alarms
(£10) etc. Ask us if you’d like to buy one of these. Neighbourhood
Watch window stickers are available free of charge. Also, the Panel is
keen to recruit new members. If you are interested, please phone PC McGill
on 658 5245.
NB Current advice from South Edinburgh Crime
Prevention (SECPP) is that the best way of securing sash windows, especially
at ground floor level, is by sash bolts. P.C. McGill can advise. Over-60’s
may be able to have the bolts fitted free of charge.
MERCHISTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Speaking up for the People of Merchiston! This
is the motto of Merchiston Community Council (MCC), under whose auspices
Merchiston & Polwarth Neighbourhood Watch was established. We are
a group of around 15 local residents, all volunteers, whose statutory
responsibility is to ascertain and reflect the views of the people living
in our area, on a wide range of topics – planning, licensing, anti-social
behaviour, parks maintenance, re-cycling, pavement repairs, parking, to
name but a few - and to do what we can to get any problems resolved by
the relevant authorities.
All of our meetings are open to the public.
The next meeting of Merchiston Community Council will be our AGM on Tuesday
20 May at 7.00pm in the Eric Liddell Centre, Holy Corner. We will be reviewing
issues discussed over the past year, including any that have still to
be resolved, and launching our revamped website. All local residents are
welcome. Watch this space – the revamped MCC website will be available
shortly at the same address: www.merchistoncc.org.uk
MCC has a seat on the Board of the South Central
Neighbourhood Partnership (SCNP) which will shortly be producing a Local
Plan for the area. The next meeting of SCNP is on Monday 12 May, at 7.00pm
in The Methodist Central Hall, 2 West Tollcross. From 6 -7pm there will
be an open surgery at which members of the public can talk direct to City
of Edinburgh Council officials.
AND FINALLY………PLEASE
CAN YOU REGISTER VIA OUR WEBSITE FOR ELECTRONIC COPIES OF THIS NEWSLETTER?
Given above [sic] is part of a screen-shot of the Contact
page on our website (www.NeighbourWatch.org.uk) where you can provide
us with the information that we think will make a big difference to how
we operate – for your benefit and for ours.
We currently circulate our newsletter on paper,
by hand. In the interests of the environment we would like to move to
distribution via email and our website and therefore we need to have contact
email addresses for as many people as possible.
We anticipate sending out general emails at
a rate of about 2 or 3 per year ... we don't like spam either! In addition,
we are often informed of criminal activity 'in real time' (such as scams
and con-men operating in the neighbourhood, etc). Passing on this information
to you by email, as well as posting on the website, can help stop them.
You can be assured that no email addresses will be passed to any other
organisations at any time.
If, for any reason, you would prefer to continue
with paper copies of the newsletter, please know that this will not be
a problem. Linda Alston (contact details below) has kindly offered to
co-ordinate the delivery of paper copies. We are most grateful to her.
All those residents who register their details
via the website before the next Public Meeting will be entered into a
FREE PRIZE DRAW, the winner of which
will be announced at that meeting.
Again, we are extremely grateful to local Estate
Agents Hunters Residential (part of Gillespie Macandrew LLP Solicitors)
for photocopying our Newsletter free of charge. But NHW receives no public
or other funding and we do have costs that need to be met throughout the
year. Contributions towards these are always gratefully received.
Thanks to you all for your feedback and support.
We look forward to seeing you at our meeting on 11 May.
Yours sincerely,
Bridget M. Stevens
Chair, Merchiston Community Council
Email bridget@neighbourwatch.org.uk
Summary of relevant Police telephone
numbers for Merchiston area:
St Leonard’s Police Station: 662 5000
(St Leonard’s Incident Centre)
Police – for all serious emergencies:
999
Crimestoppers: 0800 555 111
This is the number to ring if you want to talk confidentially about your
suspicions of a particular crime or a particular individual.
Merchiston Community Beat Officer PC Alan Hopper:
662 5022
or by email at alan.hopper@lbp.pnn.police.uk
Polwarth Grove Community Beat Officer
PC John Goodall: 221 2008
or by email john.goodall@lbp.pnn.police.uk
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