Check Magazine: Fashion and Lifestyle

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH SIGNS

This provides guidance on the erection of signs for Neighbourhood Watch Schemes established jointly by a local watch committee and Warwickshire Police.

Signs should conform to the rules outlined below:-

Procedure
You need to be an approved Neighbourhood Watch Scheme. For further information contact your local Community Safety Team at your police station, or North Warwickshire Neighbourhood Watch Association.
Determine the location of the signs and check them against the criteria below.
If they comply then complete the request form and send it, together with the information requested and a plan of the proposed location, to the Secretary, Mr Dave Atkin - North Warwickshire Neighbourhood Watch Association, who will forward to:-
The Community Engagement Officer, Bedworth Police Station, Bedworth.

Erection of signs
The sign should not in any way resemble a traffic sign.
The number of signs must be kept to a minimum. Where a scheme covers a whole community, such as a small village, one sign should be provided at each approach to that community.
Signs must not exceed 0.2 square metres (approx 450mm x 450mm) in area.
Signs should be erected at least 2.1 metres above a footpath or grass verge to provide sufficient headroom. No sign may exceed 3.6 metres above ground level. The figures may be amended if a suitable village name-plate is available.

Locating Signs
Where can they be erected?
On concrete and steel lamp columns and traffic sign posts owned by the County Council.
On private land where they can be mounted on posts, walls and fencing with the land owners permission.
On posts supporting village name signs. You mat not put signs on:
Any Traffic signal.
Telephone poles, without the written permission of the relevant telephone company.
Electricity poles or wooden street lighting columns without written permission from the relevant electricity company.

Note
If it is not possible to locate a sign in accordance with the above, signs should be mounted on posts, walls, or fencing on private land, at the applicants expense, and with the permission of the landowner. The sign should not exceed 0.2 square metres (approx. 450mm x 450mm) in area; otherwise planning permission will be required from the local planning authority.

Insurance
All signs supplied and erected by the scheme must be covered by insurance for third party liability, which indemnifies Warwickshire County Council for not less than £2,000,000 in respect of each claim. On behalf of Neighbourhood Watch throughout the country, the Home Office has put in place Liability Insurance that incorporates adequate cover in respect of street signs. Scheme members need take no action in this regard. Should the situation change Warwickshire County Council will be informed and will amend any procedural guidance accordingly.

Approval Procedure
If the above criteria have been met then you should complete the standard request letter attached, and return to The Secretary, North Warwickshire Neighbourhood Watch Association, who will pass this to the relevant authorities for approval.
Once a letter of approval has been received, North Warwickshire Neighbourhood Watch Association will supply you with the signs requested.
Should the Police or Highways Authority withdraw their approval, or the scheme ceases to operate, the signs must be removed within 14 days.
Any signs erected within the highway without the requisite permission will be removed, and the costs incurred will be recharged to the offender.