Public Services

fig. 16 – The Importance of public services
in the parish

There was great concern about the police, fire and ambulance services in the parish. Fig 16. shows that crime prevention, police presence and response times are all highly important factors to the community. In fact, this question produced the highest overall importance of the whole questionnaire.

We also looked into the issue of neighbourhood watch schemes. Taking the parish as a whole, only one in three households are in a neighbourhood watch scheme. The bulk of these are concentrated in the centre of the village, with some of the outlying areas, and Fen Road to the west of Swan Bridge, missing out on these schemes. This is something that might be addressed quickly, to improve the perception of crime prevention.

Points To Take Forward

• Great concern over emergency service response times and an apparent lack of police presence in the village
• Neighbourhood Watch schemes can be improved in certain areas