A MAN who helps ensure the comfort and security of residents on a housing estate, has won the vote of his peers.

Steve Westwood, manager of William Sutton Trust wardens at Middlesbrough, has been elected chairman of the North East Wardens Network for the year beginning next month.

The network allows community, street and safety wardens to meet on a regular basis to share good practice and support one another, as well as providing a regional representative to the National Wardens Network.

Mr Westwood says he wants to develop the network further, over the coming months.

"This is an especially exciting time of change for the warden movement, schemes are being mainstreamed and wardens' roles and responsibilities are changing," he said.