Wardens walk the plank

Here at the National Association for Neighbourhood Management we are only too aware of the impact that the end of ring-fenced government grants can have on neighbourhood interventions. While we remain relatively positive on the future of neighbourhood management post-central government funding there seems to be more uncertainty surrounding neighbourhood warden schemes.

In the past few months we’ve seen quite a few news stories relating to the closure of warden services and PCSOs, often directly linked to neighbourhood management teams. For instance, the Central and Hindpool Neighbourhood Management team in Barrow is asking businesses to sponsor its neighbourhood wardens, while PCSOs in North Lincolnshire are at risk as Westminster’s funding for the Acorns neighbourhood management team comes to a close.

It would be easy to dismiss the loss of street wardens as trivial but the consequences of cutting these services can be severe. Coventry’s recent rise in crime has been attributed to the loss of street wardens and the recent NDC evaluation report showed that neighbourhood warden schemes had a significant impact on the fear of crime and dereliction scores. On top of this a recent report by JRF - Communities in the Recession - concludes that public service cuts may trigger a second recession unique to deprived communities, many of which are dependent on public services – “from free school buses to drug outreach services, even police community support officers – to cushion their community infrastructure.”

With the main political parties expounding their commitment to public service cuts it’s important that deprived places and the neighbourhood-based interventions are not overlooked, pulling them further into poverty and widening the gap in inequalities even more.