MEMBERS of East Renfrewshire’s Neighbourhood Watch programme added another award to their impressive array 10 years ago.

The group was nominated in five categories at the 2009 Association of Scottish Neighbourhood Watches (AoSNW) Awards.

And chairman Tom Taylor revealed the East Renfrewshire team managed to scoop the Communication Award.

At the time, he said: “The judges were from the Scottish Government, the police and community safety.

“The Scottish Government said they really liked our approachable and responsive attitude to communication via the website.

“That was linked into our ability to link with the community and our partners in the press.”

He added: “The Barrhead News is one of our most significant and important partners.

“The News really assisted us in winning this prestigious national award by asking us to comment on articles, as well as to write a weekly blog for the paper’s website.”

Mr Taylor also revealed the group had been contacted by other Neighbourhood Watch branches that were keen to emulate their success.

He said: “The Scottish Police College have also approached us, a chief fire officer from another area approached us, someone from Angus Council – and more – have all contacted us to ask how we manage to get the cooperative, innovative ideas.”