Security in Newtownabbey, along the Shore Road.

Newtownabbey is largely residential, built up in stages since the 1950s. Rathcoole and Monkstown are long-established estates with a dense mix of terraced and semi-detached housing, where a wireless alarm and a doorbell camera cover most requests. Newer developments further out have smaller plots and shorter driveways than the older estates, which changes what a gate installation looks like: there is rarely room for a long sliding track, so a compact swing gate or a single pedestrian gate with a keypad usually fits better than a full vehicle gate system.

Mallusk, on the edge of the borough near the M2, is one of the larger trade and distribution estates in the greater Belfast area, with warehousing, haulage yards and light industrial units that mostly want CCTV over a yard and access control that logs staff and deliveries. Down toward Whiteabbey and the Shore Road, some of the older, larger houses sit close to Belfast Lough, where salt in the air from the water is a smaller factor than it is further up the coast, but still worth allowing for in the equipment we choose.

Newtownabbey sits between the M2 and the M5 motorways on the northern edge of Belfast, with the Shore Road, the A2, running along Belfast Lough through Whiteabbey and Jordanstown. Planning and building control fall to Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, and policing is organised under PSNI's Antrim and Newtownabbey district. The motorway access makes Newtownabbey one of the quickest parts of Northern Ireland for us to reach from either Belfast or our Castlewellan base.

On new-build estates, the usual job is a doorbell camera, a wireless alarm and, where there is a driveway, a compact single gate rather than a wide sliding system, simply because the plot does not allow for one. At Mallusk and the other trade estates, CCTV covering the yard and access control on the main entrance are the common requests. In Rathcoole and Monkstown, most calls are for an alarm upgrade or a camera added to an existing system.