Beith Orr Park Neighbourhood Watch

Our watch was Founded in 2007 and has been of great benefit to the community surrounding Orr Park.

We are now registered with The Association of Neighbourhood Watches

Unfortunately some residents see the watch as a Vigilante group who will go out and "set about" anyone causing problems. This is not the way a Neighbourhood Watch is run.

Our group work closely with the local Council, ASBID team, Fire service, Police and all local politicians, MP's and MSP's etc to ensure that everyone in the area benefits from any changes or improvements which our members may suggest from time to time.

Since the launch of the watch, the area in general is much tidier and problems are being attended to. Some residents are under the impression that the watch is made up of "Peeping Toms". Nothing could be further from the truth. There are several Coordinators who feed problems back to the appropriate authority and endeavour to have unsatisfactory matters attended to.

The members meet once every 2 months and there is generally a speaker attending the meeting. The speaker can be from any of our partners in the council's various departments, Police, Crime stoppers etc. Tea and biscuits are served at the meetings and new members are made welcome. Any concerns are discussed and many have been resolved to the benefit of both the members and the area in general

There is generally a wee raffle at the meetings which the members contribute to and some also bring along a prize. This is the only income we have, but set against that we have little expense.

We do however try to give our members very good value for money and to that end we have both a Christmas buffet night and a summer barbeque. These evenings have been well received and cost our members nothing. The feedback from those members who can attend have been very favourable. As a general feedback to our members, we endeavour to produce a bi-monthly newsletter which is handed out to those members who attend. Anyone with an item they would like to have inserted into the newsletter is welcome to contact any of the co-ordinators with the information. We will endeavour to post the newsletter on this site, as and when we produce them.

Contact can be made to Norrie Brown on 01505 506194 or 07774 951 660. John McLeish our secretary has had to decline his position due to his continuing ill health. We thank John for his support in the past and wish him a speedy recovery and great improvement for the future.

Anyone in the vicinity of Orr Park is eligible to become a member and if you are not already a member then please feel free to contact either of the above, or attend one of the meetings.

The next scheduled meeting is in Beith Community Centre Lounge on Tuesday 13th December 2011 from 7.00 till 9.00pm. This is our Christmas Buffet evening and we hope to provide our usual social event to which all members are welcome. If you have any concerns, then this is the place to talk about them and we will see what we can do to have them attended to.

The evening will consist of a short introduction followed by the buffet and entertainment by the Garnock Valley Traditional Music Group.

We hope to have a good evening where everyone can relax and enjoy themselves. We will be holding our usual raffle and hope everyone can be as generous as usual.

Merry Christmas to everyone and we hope next year is the best you have ever had.