A CRIME-FIGHTING initiative in Darlington has been praised as the best in the Tees Valley, a year after a police chief said it needed revitalising.

The town's Neighbourhood Watch project received high marks in a review carried out by the Safe in Tees Valley Community Partnership.

Now other towns in the area have been told to learn from the scheme's successes.

Neighbourhood Watch liaison officer Jacqui Snowball said the initiative had turned itself around since last June, when Darlington's then Detective Chief Inspector Andy Reddick said police had failed schemes in the past.

"Things have changed a lot since then," she said.

"It's fair to say Darlington Neighbourhood Watch is now thriving and working in partnership with the police."

Sergeant Paul Robinson, from the town's Community Safety Partnership, said: "For us, the Safe in Tees Valley review was a very, very positive health check. Perhaps we didn't realise how good our structures were already."

Last year, the scheme had 2,000 members across the town, but many were simply on a database and not part of an active group.

A membership audit was carried out and there are now only 1,200 members, but Ms Snowball said they were all actively involved in detecting crime in their area.

She has introduced regular email, telephone and text alerts to warn Watches about problems in their area.

Tip-offs from members have led to a number of arrests, particularly in relation to car crime.

At the annual gathering of Neighbourhood Watch this week, Ms Snowball was given a Divisional Commanders' commendation for the development and leadership she has given over the past year.

Members receiving commendations were: Olive Dixon and Floris Allison, Ivor and Jennifer Griffiths, and Anne Plant.

Inspector Paul Unsworth, from the partnership, said: "Neighbourhood Watch helps with the detection of crime, helps with the prevention of crime and it helps people feel empowered. There are more and more of our beat officers using Neighbourhood Watch as a means of communicating with their communities.

"Although we have made significant progress we feel there's a hell of a long way we can go with this. We want people involved in a meaningful way."

Anyone interested in joining or starting a Neighbourhood Watch scheme can call Ms Snowball on (01325) 346832