BY ALEX MURRAY
A community meeting will be held tonight at the New Hope Community Church to combat the increase in crime to areas such as Wallsend, Maryland and Fletcher who have been calling for a permanent police presence.
The meeting aims to bring together a group to discuss the past incidents and look toward the future with ideas for a Neighbourhood Watch and guest speakers such as Senior Constable, Jeff Milton from the Waratah police and Bill Hackney, coordinator of the Hunter Region's Neighbourhood Watch.
Both will answer questions before the community who have any concerns surrounding local crime rates with an encouragement to attend for the importance of creating a safe and unified community.
Organisation of the event was conducted by the State member for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery who is eager to establish a safe presence for the community under Neighbourhood Watch as she said, "We're looking at how we can best protect one another as a community from crime and this is a wonderful way to do that".
She described, "what we're trying to prevent by setting up a neighbourhood watch is particularly petty crime or unreported crime... a good neighbourhood watch will prevent many crimes because we are looking after one another".
Ms Hornery says she hopes this meeting and the organisation itself will bring "encouragement and knowledge to people and give them the confidence to report crimes when they see it".
The Meeting will be held at 55A Wentworth St, Wallsend at the New Hope Community church at 7pm.
