Weeknotes for Friday 20th March 2026

It’s been a few weeks since our last edition of Weeknotes. So here’s a roundup of the community safety and Neighbourhood Watch related news from the past few weeks. Please share with others or encourage them to signup direct (new signup form here). Remember all previous editions of this news summary are online.

Community safety

VANEL have launched a new Community Safety webpage here: www.nelwatch.org.uk/communitysafety. The page is an index to try and help people navigate the huge number of resources available covering all aspects of community safety. “Community Safety” covers anything from personal safety; protecting your property or possessions; emergency preparation; fire safety; scams avoidance and more. Community Safety also means understanding how to report things properly; who to call; how to network with others; where to find advice. It coves Neighbourhood Watch; Anti-Social Behaviour and lots more.

So, this new page hopes to help residents find a quicker route to the right information – rather than relying on a web search or hoping to stumble across resources. The page will help people find answers to their concerns.

The resource has been created as part of the ongoing community connection and cohesion work that VANEL is undertaking across NEL in partnership with the Community Safety Partnership (CSP).

Please take a read. Please share widely across your networks.

www.nelwatch.org.uk/communitysafety

The latest newsletter from the CSP is also just out.

All the information about CSP related matters that used to be on the SaferNEL page have now been merged back into the main NELC website. CSP pages here.

Round 8 of the Community Safety Fund (from the office of the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner) is now open for applications. Has your organisation got a project that impacts community safety and needs funding? Details here. Closes 13th May

Interesting story from the Council blog: Groups of young people pushed out their comfort zone in 12-mile walk in the dark

Scams and Fraud

Fraudwatch have issued their first Trigger Alert for 2026 in response to an increase locally in Police impersonation. Have a read. Page contains some useful resources too.

ReportFraud (the relaunched ActionFraud) has a useful and comprehensive A-Z guide for all types of cyber scams and fraud.
Remember you should report frauds via ReportFraud here.

MyCommunityAlert also now includes a tick box to sign up for ReportFraud alerts through the MCA system. If you’re already registered, login and tick the ReportFraud box. If not, sign up now and tick it when registering.

Recent Police alert warning about Cold callers. Copies of the Police Crime Prevention Handbook can be picked up from Police or from one of VANEL’s information hubs. No Cold Caller window stickers are also available from the same places.

VANEL have recently obtained a new supply of ‘No Cold Caller’ window stickers thanks to support from NELC, the SaferNEL team and some funding from the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner.

We noted recently that the community shredder in Immingham Civic Centre is has now given up the ghost finally so is no longer available. There are still a couple of other community shredders available around the borough. The oldest were installed in 2018 so they’re getting on a bit. But please use them (or use your own shredder) to make sure you dispose of confidential information carefully to avoid Identity Theft.

Worth a read: The new Fraud Strategy is out. Part of this includes setting up a new Online Crime Centre. Also, “Global taskforce launched to hunt down overseas scammers”

Policing

A couple of recent blogs from the Office of the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner:

Police and Crime Plan Survey: Blog 1 – Priorities

Police and Crime Plan Survey: Blog 2 – Confidence in Humberside Police

These arise from the results of the Crime Survey recently.

Neighbourhood Watch

Sixty new Community Grants awarded for 2026 – update from Ourwatch. If you’re a NW group in NEL please talk to Karl about what you need to do to perhaps apply for a grant this year.

VANEL are part of Humberwatch – the Force Area Association for Neighbourhood Watch for the Humberside Police Force Area. Management of Neighbourhood Watch in the Hull area has now changed. Hull City Council (Safer Hull) will now be overseeing NW in Hull (just as VANEL does for NEL). For the past decade or more this has been led by The Neighbourhood Network (a Hull based charity) who have now had to step away from that role due to funding constraints. A big thank you to the team at the Neighbourhood Network who have been involved with Humberwatch since the start. Read more here.

Opinion piece from Ourwatch CEO: “Crime has changed, so well-resourced police reform needed to reflect that”

Local news

South Ward: “It’s just amazing”: Council going the extra mile to help North Wall Cleaner. Blog from NELC about work with Frank Sparkes in South Ward. This work arose from the Nunsthorpe Clear Hold Build programme (Build phase) and is being supported by VANEL through the South Together ward Forum which is supporting Frank with managing the funding for his work. Frank is doing a great job improving the environment around South Ward (and Immingham too) and benefits greatly from the financial and partnership support on offer.

The South Ward Councillors have also invested some ward budget into further community safety work in all of South Ward. As a result Karl (VANEL) is providing scams talks in the area; an information hub has been put into Sidedoor cafe; small items of personal safety equipment are available to local victims of crime and there is an ongoing push to create new Neighbourhood Watch groups in the ward.

Immingham: the latest edition of the Immingham magazine should now be out. Have a read – there’s some community safety advice in there and an update from the Policing team.

Sidney Sussex: our next Community Safety and Police drop-in at 82 Grimsby Road community hub is on Tuesday 7th April, 11am-12 noon. The Hub now produces a monthly news sheet about what we’re up to. You can sign up for a copy here.

Footnotes