More about warden schemes in the November print issue of the magazine.
Colchester citations
We last reported Colchester Borough Council in our March issue, for being early off the mark to train CCTV operators.
Some 19 member of staff have taken the training and gained SIA CCTV operator licences – full- and part-timers and casual staff, plus the monitoring room co-ordinator and Robert Needham, community operations manager. The trainers used were Optimum. Among Optimum news, by the way, is that the Oxfordshire-based trainers have a two-year contract with the Department of Transport to deliver security guard and CCTV operator training courses. Some 50 staff at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea will take both courses. Robert Needham pointed to the wardensโ citations. As for working with the elderly, wardensโ work included warning of bogus callers, and giving personal safety advice; installing Memo Minder alarms in homes of vulnerable people and making security visits to homes when the householders are away. As for the environment, or โliveabilityโ award, wardens have made a working agreement with British Telecom plc for the removal and over-painting of graffiti on the telecom firmโs street cabinets; similarly agreed with local supermarkets over how to return abandoned shopping trolleys; worked with the vehicle licensing authority in Swansea over unlicensed vehicles; and worked with the local authority to combat fly-tipping and abandoned cars. The wardens have besides done work less strictly to do with crime and the fear of crime – such as tea dances for the elderly, and a football club for youths – but with the aim of improving the community generally.
