Lingfield Grove Liverpool L14 3L
Neighbourhood Watch on-line Newsletter for residents. Last update 24 Feb 2003

Lingfield Grove main page.     Email the editor.     Local Interest page. 		Our Home Watch Co-ordinator is:
Paul LIMBERT,;
our Assistant Co-ordinators are ;
Joyce HILL, ;
Gerry JONES.
Stan DAVIES.
John COSTIGAN,
Mal TURNER, .
This section will hold a web version of our most recent Newsletter, items of interest which have come in since publication, and items of continuing interest or reference.

March 2003. DON'T PRESS 9 0 # on your phone, if asked to do so by "BT Engineers." These calls are from criminals who want to make free use of your phone line and phone bill to run up calls. This is a minor risk to householders, as the "9" is mainly for getting an Outside Line on a company phone network, but even so we should be aware of these things.
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24 Feb 2003
Two items of news recently, to which I hope you will give some thought.
First; glue on the cars.
About 20th Feb, some idiot thought it would be fun to squirt a line of glue over half a dozen cars on the Odds side, top end. Luckily (!), the damage did not result in heavy bodyshop bills for the owners, just a lot of hard graft they could have done without. One of our neighbours acquired for £13 a litre can of clever liquid called Tar & Oil Remover by "Concept", which he got from a firm called Parry's at Millers Bridge, Bootle. They certainly deserve a mention and a recommendation.

Next; Milk disappearing from our door-steps.
Well, is this a problem here? How many of us have been affected by it? Just a couple? Most of us? If every house could tell me how many times you lost door-step milk in the year 2002, and if you were certain it was not just a relief milkman making an honest mistake, then we would know whether to contact the police.

CCTV?
With this glue, and some attempted car-thefts, it is natural that some of us are thinking about the idea of CCTV. Many questions arise, such as whether we have the right to have a police-linked camera in the Grove, or whether it would need two for the top & bottom of the fronts, but then what about our backs and gardens,? Or should we club together and get a system? And if so, what would the camera see, and who would keep looking at it, and what would they do? Or is this all getting a bit paranoid? Certainly video evidence is hand stuff, and I wonder if those of us with cam-corders or web-cameras could get into the habit of having them loaded and handy for instant use. Well, what do you all think? Please tell me.

Local interest;
Who was the Head of Household in your house in any given year? Liverpool Central Library have all the Kelly's/Gore's Liverpool Directories on micro-spools. Ring 233 5817, and book a machine. The staff are very helpful. When I go there I sometimes note a few details, and intend to give you the results for a couple more years now and then.

EARLIER ITEMS.
On New Year's eve, two men in a maroon car (Fiesta?) were knocking on doors in the Grove, asking "Do you want to sell your car?" The driver stayed in the car, regn F 286 YKC and the man who went to the houses was in his 20's casual and nondescript.When he was seen approaching another door, he turned and left; that is enough to report it. This has been reported to the police via the Call Centre for this area. (777 4545) and we await developments.
This is what Neighbourhood watch is all about. Just the fact that he saw himself being noticed and noted may have been enough to stop him finding that some houses were empty, or succeeding in some fraud.
ALSO; a car was broken into recently, and another may have been "tried". So please check your vehicles, and notice what is ""normal" for you.
FIRE STRIKE NEWSLETTER, 23rd October 2002.
with a firemens strike likely to affect us, I would like to get a paper Newsletter out, giving advice as to how we can best protect ourselves here in the Grove while it is on.
So I really need you ideas and suggestions, and pretty quick, please.
I can offer some ideas, such as these;

1. Make sure your GARDEN HOSE is connected, and working.
2. Have a couple of BUCKETS full of SAND, or even SOIL, and make sure they are somewhere handy and DRY. Having one INSIDE the house would do no harm.
3. FIRE EXTINGUISHERS; do you have any, in the house, car, caravan? Do you have a caravan or boat ladi up for the winter, with an extinguisher on board? Please bring it home.
4. KEYS FOR CARS; do you have a key to any vehicle by your premises? It might need to be shifted smartish, before a burning house or car sets your on fire too.
5. NO CHIPS. NO chip baskets, for the duration; Chippy Chips for the time being.
6. WET BLANKET; leave an old blanket, sheet, coat, whatever out in the rain, and keep it wet.
7. MOBILE PHONE; have it with you, ON, at home, up in the bedroom, anywhere, in case your house phone, or the BT Pole, gets burned before you realise.

And a few more thoughts; mainly prompted by that TV ad about fire "What is your plan?"

SMOKE ALARMS; have you got one? when did you last change the battery?
DOOR KEYS; if you have these new-style key-lock doors, can you find your keys in dark or smoke?
OBSTACLES; are you SURE you have no bikes in the hall, no big pot-plants on the staircase?

Come on, please; we are talking life and death here. Please give me some tips and ideas.
Gerry.

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NEWSLETTER, JUNE 20th 2002. NOISE POLLUTION. There was a very persistent alarm, that was sounding for 20 to 30 minutes once ot twice a day for what seemed like a month or more, from the back wall of a building in Seymour Rd.
If you are ever annoyed by an alarm which is nothing but "sound pollution" the first thing is to note and log the times it starts and stops, and find exactly where it is coming from.
The second thing to do Ring Environmental Health (via Liverpool Direct 223 3001 ).
The worst kind is the one where people set their alarm, go on holiday, the alarm is tripped and then rings for a fortnight. But even one which is tripped by every gust of wind, or by a cat walking by, and sounds a couple of times a day, it is still "noise pollution", and Environmental Health do have powers to visit, to require that the alarm be put into good order, to prosecute,or even to effect entry to a building in extreme “non-stop” cases. But they do need evidence. If only one person in a road complains, and thirty others do not, then the noisy neighbour can rightly claim that there is no problem & no case to answer.

AN ARRESTING INCIDENT
Mid-evening on Wed 12th June,2002 it seems we had a fairly close call. About 10.p.m. Two plain-clothes police arrested a character outside No 11. It seems he had been detected breaking OUT of a house called "Barian" round the corner in Thomas Lane, cutting his hand in the process.

BROADOAK UNIT.
After the excitement in May 2002, a neighbour questioned my use of the word “escaped” from Broadoak, giving the impression that Broadoak was a Secure Unit, and that the patients there were prisoners. So I went across and had a chat to a manager, and found that there are quite a few aspects worth us all knowing about.
Broadoak is not a Secure Unit, but it does have the usual security of any building. Patients are typically there for short-stay help or treatment, typically a few weeks. While they are there, they are supervised to whatever degree is considered suitable. This can range from almost nil for someone who is just about sorted, to 24-hour one-to-one. Sometimes, patients can slip their security and go further than they should, and in these cases the staff there do use the word “escaped”.

So seems we are both almost right; patients do “escape”, but they are NOT “prisoners” in a Secure Unit.
The question is; what can we residents learn from this escapade.? Answers on a post-card please, as they say. But seriously do share with me your thoughts and opinions. What measures can we take to stop scallies going from one garden to the next? We’ll try and find the legal view on your ideas.
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During the night of 12th Feb 2002, at 3.am. Sheila Cowley's at No 14 was broken into. Fortunately nothing was taken, but she has had a door and a window broken, and her nerves all to pieces. Her daughter Andrea was with her the next day, and she is much better in herself.
However, now that the horse has bolted... it must be time for us all to go over a checklist of what we should not have to have, but need to have in this day and age.
Have you got an alarm system, with a panic button by your bed?
Have you got security lighting at the back and down the side?
Have you got a porch light system, manual or automatic?
what about something to bang on the wall to wake up your neighbour?
Do you have one of those compressed air personal alarms?,
to "squirt in his face" or to squeal out of your window when your voice seizes up.
Do you have a "keyholder" ; someone who can get in, or let the police in, if you can't get to the door.

How easy is it for someone to get into your garden from Seymour/Staplands? I believe a house in Staplands was broken into as well, the same night.
Personally, I recommend Brendan Smith for alarms and P.I.R lights., Mike Brady at Maghull double-glazing if you only have single glass, and the Cop Shop for personal alarms.
Wouldn't it be nice if the worst of our problems was dog-muck.
Gerry.
Police Liaison, for Home Watches in this area;
was P.C. Paul Grounds. Try 777 4464 /4465 /4466 /4467 Sergeant Eddie COWAN via 777 4446(Sergeants Office) and
Inspector VEITCH 777 4440 (overall charge)

NEWSLETTER; Tip for Today; Velcro your keys!. Many of us have modern plastic doors, with latches which are not self-locking, which means fewer of get locked out, but face the increased danger of someone just pushing in through an unlocked door. One way round this is to have a key handy for this lock, to lock ourselves in - but this key has to be handy, yet hard to find! So; a small patch of velcro on the key means that it can be hidden in a handy but invisible place - underneath some box, on a door-jamb which has no hooks. You can buy velcro at Woolworths, Maplins, and most DIY sources. Police sources tell us that "fishing-line" crimes are still very common


KEY HOLDERS; do we all have them? Have you got one, or two? When your alarm goes off, and you are not around, who can get into your property for you and check it out? (...and switch off your alarm, if it was just the wind set it off?)

SPEED HUMPS; "Sleeping Policemen" whatever you call them. We know that our road is use by many people to bypass the traffic lights, especially at rush-hour, especially to get to the hospital. Some neighbours believe we should have a few speed humps put in the road - even two, and the 1/3 and 2/3 would help a lot.

Christmas Presents; keep them UPSTAIRS. It is tempting to start piling your presents around the tree, on the run-up to Christmas, but we must remember that thieves are very aware of this as well. Count up how much you have spent on them; NOW will you hide them until you are home on Christmas Eve?

15th November 2001;
One morning in November a resident found a large heap of dog dropping's right at the start of his drive way. This is not the first time, so he put it in a bag and hung it up in the gate post with a message asking the person to return it to the dog. I am sure all our dog-owning neighbours know that it is an offence to allow their dogs to foul the pavement, especially on someone else's path. They would not be too happy if someone put it through their own letter box.

Razor wire? Anti-vandal paint? It is tempting to put these things on our property, but there have been cases in the media of thieves claiming against house-holders, and firemen getting injured. We are trying to get a definitive answer from the police, but in the mean-time, one thing is believed to be certain, that is; you must give warning, put up a sign, but we are not sure how big/small the sign need be. On the other hand there is nothing to stop you planting some vicious roses or berberis plants, at spots where people might get into your property.

ADVERTISING
What are you doing Monday Afternoons? From 24th Sept., Gerry Jones is tutoring an Adult-Learning Country Dancing Class , 2.00 - 4.00 behind the Fiveways, off Dunbabin Rd, in the Community Hall by the Tennis Club. Standard "Adult Learning" fees apply. Good exercise! Good company! Good fun!

Here are some pages linked to this page:
Back to Lingfield Grove main page.
Liverpool CONTRA Folk-dance club
Country Dancing Classes
Liverpool Country Dance Band
Gerry Jones, the handy musician
Liverpool branch of the RSCDS
Back to the M.A.D.Folk home page
Back to the Home page

The English Folk Dance & Song Society.
The WIRRAL SOUND, the marching band of Moreton (Wirral) Boys & Girls Brigades.