No Trick or Treat posters, featured in the Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter, have been a success according to Malvern Neighbourhood Watch.

Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator Clive Marlow said he had not received any negative feedback from residents.

"I expected my phone to be full of messages from residents saying the poster had been ignored but I didn't have any, so it seems that it has been respected," he said.

Mr Marlow approached the Gazette after supplies of the poster from West Mercia Police and regional Neighbourhood Watch headquarters ran out within two days of its release.

He said that responses to the poster showed that elderly people, in particular, were grateful for it with some saying they had been dreading Halloween for some time.

Mr Marlow said it was likely the idea would spread to other parts of the country following the campaign's success here.

"I know that people from other areas of Worcestershire visited Malvern, saw the posters and thought they should start doing it too," he said.

"I think it was a benefit to the community."

Sgt Bob Werner-de-Sondberg, of West Mercia police, said there had been a considerable improvement from the Halloween situation two years ago.

"In part, this is due to initiatives we in the force have taken, the No Trick or Treat posters issued through the Neighbourhood Watch group and the contacts we've established with schools, shops and stores," he said.

He said he was grateful to the public and welcomed the public-spirited approach.

Malvern resident David Williams, who had eggs thrown at his house over the weekend, said: "I think the poster is a very good initiative. We were away for the weekend, but if we had been here we'd definitely have stuck it up."