Directors & Trustees

The Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network (England & Wales) is a registered charity and a Limited Company. The charity side of the organisation is run by our Board of Trustees and the Limited Company aspect is run by a Board of Directors.

Directors and Trustees

Our Directors are Mr James Maddan (Chair), Ms Lynn Farrar (Vice Chair/Secretary), Mr Alastair McCrindle (Treasurer) and Dr John Perkins. Our Trustees are Mr James Maddan, Ms Lynn Farrar, Mr Alastair McCrindle, Dr John Perkins, Mr John Hallows and Mr Alan Johnson. Scroll down to read their biographies and find out more about them.

Regional Representatives Group

The Board liaises with a Regional Representatives Group made up of one volunteer representative from each of the nine English regions plus Wales (making 10 members of the Regional Representatives Group in total). Each regional representative is chosen by Neighbourhood and Home Watch in the region itself by whatever method suits them. The only condition is that they must be a member of Neighbourhood or Home Watch and they must not be a paid member of police staff.

The role of the Regional Representatives Group is to liaise between grassroots Neighbourhood and Home Watch groups and members in their regions and the NHWN Board of Directors. This involves, among other things, feeding back 'news and views' from the regions to NHWN and keeping members in the region informed of developments at a national level.

Structure

Within each region there are a number of police force areas - 43 in total across England and Wales. Each force area has a volunteer Neighbourhood or Home Watch representative who assists the regional representative in linking with individual Watch groups.

You can download the NHWN constitution here.

To see our other corporate documents and those relating to our governance and structure, click here.

To find out more about our work in your region and to find out who your regional representative is, click here.

About our Trustees & Directors

Jim Maddan (Chair)

Jim Maddan became Chair of the Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network in October 2010. He joined the police service in London in October 1968 and served throughout south and west London until his retirement in July 1999. At the time of his retirement, he was the Community Inspector for Putney and Roehampton, where he developed an interest in Neighbourhood Watch from the police perspective.

After his retirement he worked for the National Neighbourhood Watch Association as a Development Officer until 2002, when his position came to an end. Shortly afterwards he was elected to Wandsworth Borough Council and he is currently the Executive Member for Adult Care Services and Health. In this role, he is able to work with local Neighbourhood Watch schemes to ensure that the elderly and vulnerable, who wish to remain in their own homes, are as safe as possible.

He is the coordinator for his own scheme in Putney, a member of the local borough association and Chair of the London Neighbourhood Watch Association, as well as national Chair.

In his spare time he enjoys walking, fine wines and being a grandfather.

Lynn Farrar (Vice Chair)

Lynn was born in Derbyshire and returned to her roots in 2001 having worked and lived in various locations across England. She became a member of Neighbourhood Watch in 2002 and soon found herself more involved as she became a village Area Coordinator and then an elected County Association committee member. In 2010 Lynn became Vice Chair of NHWN. As a Civil Servant with 30+ years of experience and a 15-year experience in procurement, she was able to use her knowledge and qualifications to help with various business and strategic issues at Board level.

As she was fortunate enough to take early retirement from full time work in 2006, Lynn found that she had spare time which enabled her to direct her efforts into Neighbourhood and Home Watch activities at local, regional and national level and she has thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities this brings.

Lynn is married to David and they live a leisurely life in the Derbyshire Dales with their little dog.

Alastair McCrindle (Treasurer)

Alastair is a professional Chartered Accountant, having spent his working life with major US and UK public companies in financial and general management.

He is now retired but works voluntarily as a Director and Treasurer of the Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network.

Originally Alastair became a local Neighbourhood Watch coordinator in 1994, progressing to county Vice Chair/Treasurer of Lincolnshire Neighbourhood Watch Association. He is now also an Uppingham coordinator, committee member and a representative on the East Midlands Neighbourhood Watch committee.

Alan Johnson (Trustee)

Alan was born and grew up in County Durham, and attended Stanley Grammar School before qualifying as a Building Services Engineer with a consultancy practice in Newcastle upon Tyne. He then moved to British Gas where he spent most of his career in various locations across England and Wales. Later on he set up his own consultancy specialising in major project initiatives in the energy and building services sectors.

He now lives in Newport, near Saffron Walden, Essex and, since his retirement, has developed a number of volunteering interests. As well as Neighbourhood Watch, these include working as a magistrate, trustee of an educational trust and president of his local Lions Club.

His Neighbourhood Watch activities include Chair of the Essex County Association, Chair of his local District Steering Group, and he is also Secretary of the Eastern Regional Partnership.

John Hallows (Trustee)

John Hallows was born in Deal, Kent, in July 1937 – he is a Man of Kent. His father was a miner and his mother a nurse. They were both community activists.

With the threat of invasion in 1942 John was evacuated to Barnsley, South Yorkshire, where he still lives. His wife died in 2006 and he now lives on his own with his cat Tinkerbell, a garden full of birds and a pond with goldfish.

John trained as a Motor Engineer and started his own business in 1969. He joined the Barnsley Chamber of Trade and became the link between South Yorkshire Police and shops/traders with regard to crime prevention and shoplifting etc. His responsibilities included revamping the early warning system between shops in 1974, representing the Chamber on community safety forums and Crime Prevention Panels (introduced after the Lord Scarman report in 1978) and sitting on the South Yorkshire County Crime Prevention Panel from 1980 to 1986.

When South Yorkshire County Council was dissolved in 1986, South Yorkshire Police asked John to form Barnsley Crime Prevention Panel, which he chaired. His role included looking after a new community group that was fast developing in the Borough. This was called… Neighbourhood Watch!

With the coming of the Crime and Disorder act of 1998, the Crime Prevention Panel morphed into the Barnsley Neighbourhood Watch Liaison Group at the request of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. The aim was to develop a district Neighbourhood Watch association and represent all Neighbourhood Watch groups in the borough with both the police and the local authority through Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (now called Community Safety Partnerships).

John was a founder member of the South Yorkshire Neighbourhood Watch Association in 1999 and chaired the Association from 2010 to 2013. He has attended regional meetings since their introduction in 2003 and was elected county Neighbourhood Watch representative in 2006.

In 2007 he was elected Regional Deputy Neighbourhood Watch representative to the Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network (England & Wales) and in 2010 he was elected Regional Representative. He has been responsible for the starting up of over 900 Neighbourhood Watch schemes in the Borough of Barnsley with a total membership of more than 7,000.

John was elected to the Neighbourhood & Home Watch Network Board of Trustees in 2012.

John Perkins (Trustee & Director)

John is a former Chief Executive of the National Computing Centre with a background in Research and Development, marketing and business development.

He became involved with Neighbourhood Watch after a couple of 'incidents' in his local village. He took on the role of scheme coordinator and was subsequently invited to join the Board of the Cumbria Association of which he is now Chair. He also sits on the North West Regional Neighbourhood and Home Watch Forum.

John is Chair of his local Community First Responders Group and a Trustee of his local Community Centre. His other interests include bowls, listening to music, and trying to maintain some control of his garden.