Welcome to my last Weeknotes email of 2025. VANEL will be closed after Christmas Eve until Monday 5th January. Next Weeknotes will be 9th January. Until then have a good holiday season and stay safe.
Remember that all previous editions of this news summary are online. If you’re involved with a group or network, please share anything in this email that feels useful with others.
Community safety
Residents are being asked to have their say on Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) being introduced in Immingham. Story here. Info on PSPOs here. Link to the consultation here (closes 13th Feb). An important tool to help tackle ASB in Immingham so have your say.
What should you do if you aren’t happy with a delivery company this festive period? Useful tips from Humberside Police community safety team.
Government launches consultation on facial recognition technology. This is a contentious issue balancing privacy with public safety. So, take part in the consultation (before 12 Feb 2026) if you want to have your say. Here’s a note about this from Ourwatch and the survey information here.
A few weeks back we discussed the ‘Orange the World’ / White Ribbon days of action tackling domestic abuse and VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls). Now, here is an important article from NELC discussing “How Clare’s Law can help to make your relationships safer”.
Scams and fraud
Friends Against Scams has released a brand new app. It includes training for identifying scams as well as useful tools to directly check for scams. All about the app here including download links. The more everyone knows about avoiding scams, the better. So if you’re not already a Friend Against Scams I’d encourage you to take the online training and share what you learn with others.
The Cyber Helpline is a national non-profit directly helping individuals with the impacts of cyber crime (bullying, scams and more). Their website is packed full of useful guides. If you’re concerned about wellbeing online or dealing with cyber crimes then visit their site.
Fraudwatch for Humberside has a number of specific fraud prevention guides. This one is a bit specific but I’ve spoken to a number of people now who invest in Crypto so if you know what that is you might want to read the guide to avoiding crypto fraud here Download
VANEL continues to deliver Scams/Fraud Awareness training sessions across North East Lincolnshire thanks to Fraudwatch funding. Looking back Karl has delivered 22 sessions during 2025 to a total of 450 people. If just one person thinks twice and avoids clicking on a scam email/message/link as a result then that’s important. It’s been humbling to hear just how many people have been scammed or nearly scammed during these session, so anything we can (collectively) do to keep understanding scams and then avoiding them is to be encouraged. If you can, spend a little time looking at the useful videos and resources on Fraudwatch to help to stay safe. We’ve got a simple list of resources on nelwatch too.
Policing
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside has launched a new grant fund to support initiatives to improve road safety across the East Riding, Hull and Northern Lincolnshire. Read more about the grant here.
HMICFRS grades force as ‘good’ in tackling serious and organised crime. Clear Hold Build in Nunsthorpe has formed part of this response. Full report here.
Christmas is coming and that means Police Operation Yuletide is underway. Here’s a selection of articles from Humberside Police related to season festivities and staying safe…
Police and partners working together to prevent retail crime this Christmas
Think before getting behind the wheel this Christmas
Getting in the Christmas ‘spirit’
What3Words: The three words that could make a difference this Winter
The location of certain documents on the website for the Police and Crime Commissioner have moved. So if, for example, you’re following old links to the Police and Crime Plan 2024-29 then you’ll now find that here under the ‘reports and plans’ section.
Neighbourhood Watch
Ourwatch recently held their AGM online and I attended. The big takeaway was the new Ourwatch strategy which will launch very shortly for 2026-2030. We’ve just come to the end of the current strategy period so this new one will kick in soon. All Neighbourhood Watch coordinators and volunteers
If you missed the December edition of Ourwatch news, it’s here.
Some notes from Ourwatch about Flytipping. North East Lincolnshire Council is currently using CCTV images to identify fly-tippers. See here and here. There’s also useful local advice on fly tipping on the NELC website here.
Local approaches
Sidney Sussex Ward: Our Community Safety drop-ins at our community hub at 82 Grimsby Road are now planned into the calendar for all of 2026. Local Neighbourhood Police join us to talk about community safety issues that concern you. All the details and dates here and the first drop in is 3rd Feb 2026 11am-12noon.
South ward and Nunsthorpe: Clear Hold Build has been running for over two years now in Nunsthorpe. So what has been happening and what difference has been made? Read article from NELC “Crime falls in Nunsthorpe thanks to Clear, Hold Build”
Footnotes
WeekNotes 17 Friday 19th December 2025
By Karl Elliott, VANEL, NELwatch, HumberWatch
www.nelwatch.org.uk
www.vanel.org.uk
www.nelwatch.org.uk/neighbourstogether
part of Humber Watch Association
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