It’s been more than 40 years since Neighbourhood Watch was first launched in the UK, turning residents’ eyes and ears into a valuable crimefighting resource.

In Baildon, West Yorkshire, around a quarter of the population are registered members of their local scheme, helping to keep a watchful eye over the town.

Since a boom in membership six years ago, the scheme has been credited with helping slash crime in the community by more than a third.

As a result it has now been recognised by Neighbourhood Watch as one of Yorkshire’s most effective schemes.

“When I came to Baildon 38 years ago, we had one sergeant and seven dedicated police constables,” 74-year-old David Reed, one of the co-ordinators says, noting how police numbers have been significantly reduced in the decades since.

“So how do we manage to keep the crime down (now)? It’s got to be down to something more than what the police are able to do.”

The neighbourhood watch scheme in Baildon was started by local woman Maggie Town around 20 years ago.

For a long time, it was a slow burner, with just over two dozen volunteers in the affluent town, which lies three miles to the north of Bradford and has a population of around 16,000.

Then, in March 2018, with the help of social media and an “inspiring” new police sergeant, in Maggie’s words “it really took off”.

“I’d always run Neighbourhood Watch on my street, but I decided we need to grow this so every street has their own co-ordinator and looks after their own neighbours,” Maggie, who is also a town councillor in Baildon, says.

“It was just the vision that I had and I wanted to try to create that.”

Crime in the town has fallen every year since 2019, according to police data, seemingly in no small part thanks to the group’s efforts.

After a chat with Sgt Terri Green, head of Baildon’s neighbourhood policing team, who “challenged” Maggie to grow the scheme, a Facebook page dedicated to crime-fighting was set up.

More than half of Baildon’s 320 streets have their own co-ordinator. The Facebook group has around 4,000 carefully vetted members, all of them local, acting as eyes and ears.

After early success in fighting burglaries, the group’s focus shifted towards intelligence-gathering and improving communication among themselves and with the police.

“It gives us lines of enquiry we otherwise wouldn’t have,” Sgt Green explains.

“I think communication is key to it all, between the community, but also between the community and us.

“I’ve been here eight years and I know pretty much everyone in Baildon.”

West Yorkshire’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, Alison Lowe, says that the growth of Baildon’s crime-fighting movement has been a “joy” to watch.

“We haven’t got bobbies on the beat anymore but what you’ve got is that whole community working together, replacing that bobby-on-the-beat approach,” she says.

“They love where they live, they want to protect where they live and they want to do it with the police.

“They don’t just work to reduce crime, they’re helping all their neighbours and the community to thrive.”

With public money, as well as policing resources, tight, Maggie has been thrifty at finding cash from elsewhere, including through grants from businesses such as the Co-op.

When one resident was feeling “threatened” recently, money from the grant helped pay for a locksmith to fit sash jammers to her doors and windows, making her feel more secure.

The purpose of the group has very much evolved as it has grown, as was shown when one elderly woman was being troubled by anti-social behaviour in the snicket next to her house.

“She was frightened,” Sgt Green explains. “But what was really special was, after we dealt with the behaviour, Maggie and her team dealt with the effects of that.

“They did a rota so she wasn’t on her own. They’d go and sit in with her.”

Ruby Smart, the Neighbourhood Watch Network’s head of communications, says looking after isolated people and making them feel cared for by their neighbours has been a “lasting legacy” for the charity.

“The impact that local Neighbourhood Watch groups have had across England and Wales is astounding,” she says.

“As a charity that has been going from strength to strength for over 40 years, it is amazing to see that the commitment of local groups and individuals toward making their communities safer and happier places to live, is so strong.”

Sgt Green says she is less preoccupied with statistics than she is about the sentiment in Baildon.

“I don’t even know what the stats are now,” she says. “It’s about how people feel and people tell us they feel safe.”

Maggie, who has lived in Baildon since 1990, agrees.

“As a woman I feel safe here. I can go to council meetings at night and and I feel safe. It’s vital we all feel like that and we look out for each other.

“I had one lady say to me that since Baildon Neighbourhood Watch started she felt like she’d had a warm blanket wrapped round her.

“She said “You’ve brought the community spirit back into Baildon”.

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