15: Neighbourhood Watch
**The issue**
Neighbourhood Watch (NW) continues to be a proven way to support communities to reduce crime and bring people together.
There are currently (2025) essentially no active NW groups in South Ward.
Karl at VANEL/NELwatch leads on Neighbourhood Watch for all NEL. Karl will be reviewing NW across South Ward to see if we can create new groups, grow existing one etc.
**Status and progress**
VANEL continues to review NW and would like to support residents to start new groups.\
Neighbourhood Watch information points/’hubs’ are being placed into Sidedoor cafe and Centre4 late 2025. These will provide information for residents about community safety and neighbourhood watch.
**Barriers and obstacles**
The key barrier is finding residents who wish to lead Neighbourhood Watch groups locally as Coordinators.
**Next steps**
VANEL and the Forum will continue to act as a point of contact for Neighbourhood Watch in South Ward.\
The Neighbourhood Watch hub points are to be installed.
**Further information**
More local information at [https://nelwatch.org.uk](https://nelwatch.org.uk)
National information about N Watch at [https://www.ourwatch.org.uk](https://www.ourwatch.org.ukhttps://www.ourwatch.org.uk)
Contact Karl Elliott at VANEL who is the Membership Support Administrator (MSA) for all Neighbourhood Watch in North East Lincolnshire ([karl@vanel.org.uk](mailto:karl@vanel.org.uk) / 07936 415804
