RESIDENTS in the Beaminster area are being urged to join their local Home Watch scheme.

Home Watch is a community based safety and anti-crime scheme, which is operated by residents of local areas, with the police.

It aims to educate residents on current threats and to give them the knowledge they need to minimise threats for themselves and their neighbours.

Schemes are free to join and people can put as much or as little time as they want in to it.

Schemes are in place in many areas and supported by the Beaminster Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) but it is hoped some areas can be expanded or formalised in some areas.

The local NPT is urging people to sign-up to their local scheme.

Communities including Symondsbury, Salway Ash, Netherbury, Powerstock, Corscombe and Evershot are not yet officially represented and it is hoped that coordinators can be recruited to run schemes in these areas.

Officers from the NPT send regular messages to coordinators and Home Watch contacts, alerting them to local crimes and suspicious incidents, new and recurring scams to beware of, crime prevention reminders and other useful advice.

Coordinators will then pass on the messages to other members.

Quarterly Home Watch meetings are held in the Conservative Club in Bridport, which many of the coordinators attend, so that people can be kept up to date on crime prevention advice and to encourage networking.

The next meeting is on Thursday, April 21 at 10am.

Home Watch is also known as Neighbourhood Watch and has been running in the UK since 1982, with 3.8 million households members.

It looks to improve community safety, prevent crime, assist the police in detecting crime, reduce fear of crime and improve communication between police and the local community.

Beaminster NPT would like anyone who is not already a member of a scheme or who would like to volunteer to be a scheme coordinator or just wants to find out more, to get in touch on Beaminster-@NPT@Dorset.PNN.Police.uk or 101.