Slough Home Improvement team win for excellence
Slough Borough Council’s Home Improvement Agency (SHIA) has won a prestigious Best Partners Initiative award for their excellence in keeping residents safe.
Clive Anderson presented the team with the ‘security excellence’ award for their Homesafe Slough Scheme, established last November in partnership with Thames Valley Police, Age Concern Slough (the installer) and Response Electronics (alarm manufacturer).
The scheme ensures that residents, who are elderly, disabled and/or vulnerable, have security systems in place at their homes to keep them safe and secure.
HIA, a national not-for-profit organisation, assists these residents by improving, maintaining or adapting their properties.
Crime figures for 2005/06 indicated that robbery and burglary offences in the Slough area were twice the national average and cost each victim approximately £3,268.
Residents whose homes do not have additional security measures, such as alarm systems, are more likely to become victims of such crimes.
Keith Ford, housing renewal manager for Slough Borough Council’s HIA, said: “This relatively new scheme offers our clients the installation of burglar alarms completely free of charge.
“We are absolutely over the moon to have won the award. We have put in a great deal of hard work to get the scheme up and running and to make sure our residents who need our help are safe in their own homes.”
Commissioner for housing, Cllr Tony Haines, added: “Well done to the SHIA team. Again they have been rewarded for their hard work and dedication to Slough’s residents.
“Since the scheme stared last December, more than 500 alarms have been installed and the feedback from service users has been extremely positive and is a clear endorsement of the success of this partnership initiative.”
Councillor Chrissie Small, who has recently had an alarm fitted, along with a fire blanket, smoke alarm and door chain, cannot praise the SHIA team, along with Age Concern, enough.
She said: “SHIA is one of Slough’s biggest assets in the town. We should be screaming from the roof tops about having them in Slough and all the fantastic work they do.
“The three men, from Age Concern, who came to install my alarms were superb and I cannot praise them and SHIA enough.”
Slough Borough Council