Saint Joseph's Neighbourhood Watch    (Upper Norwood, London, U.K.)

The following members attended our meeting at the usual venue on Thursday, 3rd. September 1998 at eight o'clock: Cyril King, Anne France, Kathleen Lampitt, Wendy Brown, Kay & Derek Smith, Enid Kelley, Rita Mirpuri, Ann Murphy, Roland & Joan Burch, Tricia Whyte, Gilbert & Janet Payne, Stephen E. Tarling, Brian & Maureen Vener, Kathy Mifsud, Chrissy Silver, Sergeant Stephen Hughes of M.P. Norbury and Hugh Norwood Collins

Apologies for absence were received from Ron Dawe (this is the first time that he has been unable to come to our meetings) and Mark Stein.

CRIME REPORT:

Sergeant Hughes told us that there had been three burlaries in Ryecroft Road in the middle of August. The Police attended but have, so far, not been able to arrest the culprit - so far! A car was stolen in Arnull's Road and another burglary took place in Crown Lane, both these crimes were committed after 1st. July.

Sergeant Hughes, in response to a question from Mrs. Payne, explained that, although the Metropolitan Police wishes to have a greater number of "Bobbies on the Beat", usually it is far more effective to have them in cars, to enable them to respond more quickly to events. Cyril King told us that untaxed cars are still being offered for sale in Crown Lane and Sergeant Hughes said that he would, again, take up this matter with Streatham Police. The Sergeant was kind enough to say that the comparitively low level of crime in our area was largely the result of the vigilance and prompt action of our Neighbourhood Watch members.

Other News:

It appears that our summer Garden Party was a great success, with 115 participants. We have received thanks from the Mayor & Mayoress, Chief Superintendent and Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Anne Viney of Victim Support for our hospitality. We will send copies, in colour, of the relevant pages from our Web site to the Mayor & Mayoress as a momento of a happy afternoon spent together, in their encouraging presence. The photographs are very good. We thank Mrs. France again for the hospitality of her husband and herself.

Our thanks are due to Stephen Tarling for his continuing work on our Internet web Site. It now has some eighteen pages. Well done Stephen!

Welcomes: We Welcome Mr. & Mrs. Silver and their family as well as Mr. & Mrs. Harris to our neighbourhood and hope they will all be happy in their new homes. We are sorry that Mrs. Kelley is to move away from the area and we thank her for her faithful work as N.W. Co-ordinator for Averil Grove. She introduced Miss Rita Mirpuri of Averil Grove, who has kindly volunteered to take over the work of Co-ordinator. We wish both of them every happiness in the future.

THE LOSS OF OUR TWO HOME BEAT OFFICERS is a blow, as is the departure of Sergeant Hughes. The Sergeant is transferred to Royal Protection duty and we wish him well in his new post. We also thank him for attending our meeting. We feel rather let down in, once again, having no Home Beat Officers and wrote a letter to the Chief Superintendent urging him to find, as quickly as possible, at least one Home Beat Officer for Upper Norwood. We also agreed to send a copy of our letter to the Mayor (Councillor Pat Ryan of Upper Norwood). It is now particularly important that we keep up our VIGILANCE, particularly as Sergeant Hughes tells us that our South Norwood Division is the third busiest in the Metropolitan Police Area.
 

THANKS: We thanks Mr. and Mrs Burch for their kindness in permitting us to have our meeting again in their house and we wish Roland a speedy and complete recovery from his very recent heart attack.
 
 

The meeting ended at 8:50p.m.

Hugh Norwood Collins, Chief Co-ordinator. September 1998.

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