Pines, Hadleigh & Beechpark Neighbourhood Watch

Annual General Meeting – 18^th May 2023 – 7.30pm

St. Brigid’s GAA Club, Russell Park

Meeting Minutes:

We had 44 neighbours in attendance with apologies from a further 11 neighbours.  

Stg Rory Carey also sent his apologies that they were not in a position to attend.

The meeting was chaired by the area coordinator for the group – Lorcan Sheehan

Agenda

•        Review of last AGM minutes and actions

•        Financial update and report

•        Review of the Neighbourhood Watch activity

•        Confirmation of Area coordinator, street coordinator, secretary and treasurer roles

•        Q&A with local Gardai – will be rescheduled with other NW groups

•        Any other business.

2019 AGM Minutes

Due to Covid, the group has not had a General Meeting since 2019.    The minutes of the 2019 AGM were read and approved.

Finance Report

NW finances were reviewed from 2019 to the end of March 2023. 

Key highlights:

Addition of Beechpark Lawn neighbours in 2019 – 36 homes at €10 per household – also occasional contributions as homes changed hands.

Key expenses – purchase of batches of texts from Sendmode for text alerts – €351 – per batch of 5,000 texts

No external social or meeting costs during covid

Website costs – web hosting, wordpress for managing posts, domain renewal costs every 2 years

€149.98 remained in the account at the end of March 2023.

We proposed and it was approved to look for an additional €10 voluntary contribution per household.   We received contributions of €340 on the night which is appreciated. 

Neighbours can drop the contributions into their street coordinators in the coming weeks.

It was recognised that many people are using less cash for day to day expenses.   The current NW funds are maintained in a post office account with a manual book.    It was proposed and approved that the group would open a bank account which would have electronic banking facilities.

Review of NW activity

Since the last meeting, Beechpark Lawn was added to the NW group and they were formally welcomed to the group.   There are now 179 homes within the group.

New groups have also emerged in Beechpark Avenue and Phoenix Drive and there is active collaboration between all local NW groups.

We reviewed reported activities within the group over the last few years.

Break-ins

Typically opportunistic – early to late evening – 5pm to 9pm

Looking for jewellery / cash / small items

In and out in < 5 minutes

Park car in the area – walk quickly evaluating houses that look empty

Scope out area earlier in the day – door to door traders, collectors

Thefts from cars

Typically late at night – also opportunistic

Check for open cars / smash windows

Aggressive traders – door to door

Under reported but several issues with neighbours being pressurised / scammed

Provides an excuse for unknown individuals to knock on each door

Neighbours encouraged not to engage with these traders

Bogus collectors – clothing / charity

Neighbours encouraged to be wary of clothing collections as many are bogus

Banking / email scams / customs / Investment scams

Increase in each of these scams with the closure of banks and with Brexit for customs.

Additional notes:

Discussion re video doorbells – have been very useful in providing images when there has been suspicious activity. 

Introduction of WhatsApp to allow neighbours communicate on security alerts

Please do not repost images of people, full registration numbers on Whatsapp groups

Agreed to examine putting together a neighbourhood social event later this year

Confirm Area Coordinator, street coordinators, treasurer, secretary

Appointment of key officers in the group:

Area Coordinator: Lorcan Sheehan

Street Coordinators:

Liam Delaney, Ruth Hogan, John Murphy

Charlie O’Connor, John Nolan, Peter Blessing

Freda Gallagher, Dan O’Shea

Aidan O’Connell

Carmel Grogan

Nora Doyle, Seamus McCabe, Ellen Troy

Treasurer: Carmel Grogan

Secretary: Ellen Troy

Tom Kennington has stepped down as street coordinator in Hadleigh Park.   Aidan O’Connell has agreed to take this on.

Freda Gallagher stepped down as Secretary and Ellen Troy has agreed to take on that role.  Freda will remain as a street coordinator.

Thank you to all of our officers and street coordinators and we encourage others to consider whether they would be in a position to become involved.

Community Gardai

We received apologies from Stg Rory Carey.   He has offered to do a crime prevention talk later in the year in collaboration with local NW groups.

Any other business:

Social / neighbours evening – agreed to examine organising such an event

Locksmith assessment service – will look to organise in late summer

Phoenix park parking survey – encouraged neighbours to review the survey and provide their own inputs

Question raised about the pollinator friendly areas on Auburn Avenue.   Mixed opinions within the group but this is expected to be mown ay the end of May.