Luton Neighbourhood Watch suspended for breaking impartiality rules

Luton Neighbourhood Watch and its chairman have been suspended from the country’s largest voluntary crime prevention movement.

The move followed repeated requests from Neighbourhood Watch for Luton to follow the rules on political impartiality and breaching Charity Commission rules.

In an open letter, Neighbourhood Watch Network said: “There have been many opportunities for this to be corrected but these have been refused.

“As a result, the chair of Luton Neighbourhood Watch [John Fullerton] has been suspended and Luton Neighbourhood Watch is temporarily suspended from Neighbourhood Watch Network.

“This means the chair is no longer a representative of Neighbourhood Watch nor is he able to access our systems.

“He also has no permission to use the name Neighbourhood Watch or our logo.

“We are very sorry to have had to take this action but we cannot have a Chair of Neighbourhood Watch who refuses to follow Charity Commission rules or our own rules, ” it said.

Luton Neighbourhood Watch was asked for any Neighbourhood Watch work or events in the Luton area to be “suspended immediately”.

The letter added: “We would support the right of any individual to state their view and publish this but not in the name of Neighbourhood Watch or on a Neighbourhood Watch platform.”

Luton Neighbourhood Watch and Luton Borough Council were approached for a comment, but have not yet responded.