Coordinators information from Mid Sussex Neighbourhood Watch

Messages from Bruce Burgess,
Hassocks Area Coordinator... [ ]

We welcome and look forward to meeting our new Chief Inspector Jon Hull - 16/17 years a copper - he replaces Ed De La Rue.

You should have received a message sent out 13/1 by Mark Rendall on behalf Sussex NHW Federation (John Wright) warning about a website calling itself neighbourhood watch with an address of nhwo.co.uk and asks for £39.99 to register a scheme which, it claims, includes two street signs, window stickers and a high visibility vest for the coordinator.  It is not supported by the Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network which is our official national body, so beware.

We welcome Lagwood Close residents who are joining us with Pat Ticehurst as Street Coordinator.  An inaugural meeting is set for 15/2, which Emma will attend (if she is out of hospital) or P.C. John if not.

We have been advised that an email address for Sussex Police exists to complement the new 101 telephone number. Calls to 101 cost 15p - email is free.  It is: and a reference number is given in a reply message.

Only 7 out of 37 schemes replied to questions in my last newsletter of November 2011.

Breakdown and contacts of Watch Coordinator for your street.

Messages from Emma Collett,
Hassocks PCSO... [ ]

please see my current tweets*.

The latest developments from the Hassocks Neighbourhood Panel is carried in a feature on the news page as is the date for my next police surgery.

*[Webmaster note: use the hashtag to filter to Hassocks related tweets only, ie: #PCSOCollett
If you're not getting CMS messages try adding the email address:
(do-not-reply@communitymessaging.sussex.police.uk) to your email's address book or create a message rule to ensure they don't get filtered as spam.  And you can always check the latest incidents on the site's crime blog or RSS crimefeed - .]

General Messages...
Coordinators are reminded that the latest crime alerts can be viewed on the blog and RSS feed (above).

Messages from the webmaster...
The site's RSS Newsfeed and blog was launched at the end of September 2006.  Please see the What is RSS? page for details (now updated to reflect current status).

RSS technology is now mainstream for the rapid distribution of information electronically, helped on by the (then) release of Internet Explorer 7 which has an integrated RSS reader, as do many other leading web browsers.

A number of national NHW and related websites have chosen to syndicate the feed from this site, thus allowing them to provide current crime alert messages on their site without any manual updating overhead.
10/06/08

Messages from Geoff Coe... [ ]
Geoff has now retired as MSNHWA Chairman. The appointment of a replacement is awaited.

A new non-emergency telephone number will be coming into operation very soon which is: 101.  There will be media announcements once the date has been set.  For the time being the non-emergency 0845 60 70 999 will continue in operation.

It has been decided that the postponed autumn issue of Watch Out will not now be published due to the lack of copy submitted for inclusion.  Only one item of about 300 words from NPT3 was received together with about 1,200 words of draft copy, a total of about 1,500 words where some 3,500 plus pictures are needed to fill the four pages.  It is quite impossible to provide in excess of 50% of the required content without receiving any contributions.

The limit of our grant from Mid Sussex District Council towards publication has been set at £300 for the next 12 months, inadequate to print even one issue with each one costing between £600 - £700.  The cancelled autumn edition would have been the final one following some 30 editions over the past 10 years.  It has generally been well received and was arguably the best in regular publication by Sussex NHW schemes, receiving past praise from crime prevention public bodies.  The view is that there is inadequate household coverage by our 14,000 copies to NHW scheme households and that other media ways of wider publication should be used.

My thanks to those who have given help during the past years including Neville Way for the early editions, Jennie Lisney for her later design and editorial work and to Mike Potter, Hassocks website, and Mike Cheetham of Hurstpierpoint NHW for their interest and proofing work.
Past Watch Out editions are archived on this website.

National Personal Safety Day is on Monday 10th October.  This is linked with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and with On The Home Front campaign.  I can provide a guide note about this that has been received from the Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network (NHWN) which is now the lead body for NHW in England and Wales and is being increasingly active in communicating information and guidance.  If you do not receive messages from NHWN it is well worth signing up.

To assist with coordinator recruitment we have published a handy leaflet to give out to interested people.  It gives basic information about Mid Sussex NHW and how to join and can be downloaded below, or printed copies are available from police stations or PCSOs.  We are grateful to Mid Sussex Police for contributing to publication costs.

What is Neighbourhood Watch?
Download Mid Sussex NHW info leaflet (670KB)
Downloading and Printing info here.

Members Handbook
Can be downloaded (in either PDF or ZIP format) from the news page.

The form below can be used by coordinators to post messages on this page, or submit corrections/updates to site pages: