A POLICEMAN who orchestrated and presided over the county’s Neighbourhood Watch scheme has retired after 36 years with Kent Police. PC MickWright (61), who lives off Sutton
Road, Maidstone, says he would have con- tinued working but police rules dictate that he had to retire. Instead Mick, who helped resuscitate Kent’s disbanded NHW scheme in 1991 and became the county watch liai- son officer 12 years later, will now devote some of his spare time to volunteering for the scheme. “I have been here for over 30 years and I
am at the natural end of the contract,” he said. “While it would be lovely to stay on and carry on working, it will always be in my blood and I will carry on volunteering.” Mick joined the police force in 1975 and served as the beat officer for Park Wood, Shepway and Senacre as well as stints at Maidstone CID and the regional crime squad. He then breathed new life into NHW as
the liaison officer in a pilot scheme for the Maidstone and Mallings area, winning a na- tional NHW award in 1994.
But it was NHW’s achievements abroad
that gave him most pride. In 1995, he began working with the large Belgian city Ieper (formerly Ypres) to help establish a scheme modelled on the one he had developed in Kent. He organised exchange trips between Kent and Belgium, which culminated in the creation of Buurt Informatie Netwerk, which is still going strong. Mick said: “Helping that become estab- lished was the biggest achievement. We were the catalyst for changing the course of history in Belgium. This saw two police
Continued from page one Maidstone currently has three P&R sites -
Police officer Mick retires after 36 years… ... but he promises to carryon volunteering
forces join together and helped combat the previous mistrust between the public and police.” In 1997, Maidstone NHW was named the world’s best NHW scheme by the Interna- tional Society of Crime Prevention Practi- tioners in an awards ceremony in Milwaukee, USA. “I have been so lucky to be able to say that
I have enjoyed every single minute of every- thing I have done at work,” said father-of- two Mick, whose wife Marion recently retired as a bank clerk for Natwest branches in Maidstone, Headcorn and Staplehurst. “I learned a lot of lessons about intelli-
gence gathering and how to deal with peo- ple who had information during my CID years “I saw neighbourhood watch as an excel-
lent opportunity to gain intelligence about local issues. The difference between the two jobs is that neighbourhood watch demands something in return for the information, so we give out details about what has been going on, when and where.”
Council pays £84K for possible park and ride site Users park free but buy a ticket to get a bus
Willington Street, which is council owned; London Road, for which the council pays an- nual rent of £10,000, till 2022; and Sitting- bourne Road, where the rent is £141,800 pa but the deal expires in autumn. The latter site is heavily used by Kent County Council staff. Overall, P&R costs Maidstone about £400,000
a year and councillors are keen to find ways of making the scheme more cost-efficient.
into and out of the town centre, thus easing congestion. As a result, 2,700 fewer vehicle movements are made into town every day. CllrWilson said: "I'm delighted that we have managed to purchase something that we have wanted for a long time. My only sadness is that we have had to pay so much for it." But, she added, the land was an asset that
could always be sold if the council decided to not use it.
and my wife aim to have a little bit of time out and spend some time with the two grandchildren. But to ensure I keep the brain cells ticking over I will do some voluntary work for neighbourhood watch.”
Clinic-to-home plan KENT & Medway NHS Facilities wants to convert the Cornerstone day clinic, in Marsham Street, Maid- stone, into a single dwelling.
As for the future, Mick added: “Me
6 Town
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