Businesses in St Leonards are the heart of the local neighbourhood – many of the shops are homes as well, and the people who run and work in them are committed to making the area as safe as possible.
That’s why Hastings Neighbourhood Watch has teamed up the the borough’s BusinessWatch scheme to provide a unique joint project – St Leonards Community Watch (SLCW) – which offers the best of both worlds to business owners and residents alike.
What are the benefits?
Both Neighbourhood Watch and BusinesssWatch have a common motto – ‘stronger together‘.
What this means in practice is:
- By joining you become part of a local network of people who, just like you, care deeply about the place you live and work. They are there to help you, and, hopefully, you will be there to help them when they need it too.
- As a member you will have access to important and useful information that can help you stay safe and protect your home or your business. This will include alerts about possible criminal activity – including (for businesses) access to a secure database of known local offenders.
- Whenever there are key decisions to be made that affect St Leonards the membership of SLCW can be surveyed to find what the majority view is and this can be passed on to the relevant organisation – be that the Police, the borough council or the county council.
- Volunteering days can be easily organised to bring about improvements to the town …and don’t forget the hard work done by the St Leonards Town Team every year to get Christmas lights organised and paid for.
- Resources can be pooled to invest in things that benefit the area and we can bid for external funding – for instance a shared CCTV network is already being developed throughout the town centre thanks to the Home Office Safer Streets project.
What do I need to do – and don’t worry…it’s FREE!
All you need to do initially is get in touch with us using the form below.
You will then receive an invitation to sign up for ALERTS (the national Neighbourhood Watch community network and (for businesses) the crime intelligence system called ‘DISC’.
When you receive your invitation e-mail just fill in a few more details and you’ll be a part of the team!
As to cost – there is no charge – so you get all the benefits free.
BusinessWatch membership in Hastings is already one of the cheapest in the country – thanks to historic support from the council and the police, who have always valued it as a great way of reducing crimes that affect local businesses.
Sadly, due to government finances being cut back overall, it will eventually be necessary for the scheme to be financially self-sufficient.
The current £10 per month fee which gives members a wide range of services and benefits is being paid for by the Home Office for the next five years thanks to the Safer Streets grant programme – more information on what you get for joining up can be found here:
This means no fees will be charged until 2026.