Aside some noisy weather related visitors named Desmond, Eva, Frank and Gertrude it has thankfully been a reasonably quiet Christmas and January.
Quiet is something that we are very happy to report on but it is important that we maintain our awareness of home security and any suspicious activities in the area. We are still in the peak time for winter burglary and we remind you of the key tips from the Garda crime prevention unit: 
- Secure all Doors and Windows
- Light up your Home, use timer switches when out
- Store Keys safely and away from windows & letterboxes
- Record details of valuables and don’t keep large cash amounts at home
- Use your Alarm, even when at home.
Christmas trees:
With the high winds over the period, the illegal dumping of trees on the green at Auburn Avenue did pose some danger to traffic. Although Fingal collected trees frequently, the signage provided was probably too little too late and many people seemed willing to ignore. While we want to be conscious of the use of Garda and other resources on priority issues we may look to communicate contact numbers for the reporting of such illegal dumping in advance of the Christmas season next year. We will also look for the cooperation of other neighbourhood watch groups in the area to communicate with their residents.
General Election:
We wish all the candidates well during their campaign over the next three weeks. It will certainly do no harm to look for inputs from candidates on their positions in relation to crime and security during the campaign to keep these issues top of mind. Some of the issues that impact us directly are the availability of resources for the Gardaí locally and in particular a commitment to maintaining the support from the community Gardaí.
I expect we will see groups of canvassers in the area during the campaign. It is probably better to resist the temptation to report them to the Gardaí as suspicious characters in the area but normal care and attention should be taken about allowing strangers into your homes.
Plans for 2016:
We will be due to have our annual meeting in late March / early April and at that time we will set out some of our plans for Neighbourhood Watch in 2016. With your support we would like to add some signage in the area and we would also like to proceed with the Garda Text alert system. That will require some modest funding from the community and we will present full details at that meeting. We would also be interested in getting your inputs on how we can improve and if people are willing to get more involved.
We will set a date for this meeting in the coming weeks and get an agenda out to you in advance.
As always, if you see something suspicious in the area please contact the Gardaí in Blanchardstown on 01 6667000 and inform your neighbourhood watch street coordinator.
We are excited to be having our second annual golf outing and ‘Neighbours’ Night’.
etween the showers). With even the best holidays it is always good to come home and it is always a relief to open the front door to a house that is safe. While we cannot control the weather, we can all take some sensible steps to keep safe over the coming months.
flowing through the house.
emoving rubbish from the garden.
Pines, Hadleigh & Beechpark Neighbourhood Watch 
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