Neighbourhood wardens

[simonm]

OK, so some of you may not be aware of what these do. An LCC Neighbourhood warden is responsible for any aspect of the council, from anti social behaviour, cleansing and environmental, anything.OK, so some of them may not even be visible in your area, but from next march they'll not be visible at all in LCC.These people can gain the trust of various ASB youths and gain massive kudos with them and gain valuable information that has led to the police bringing good quality prosecutions within drugs regime so prevalent in our culture. However, that is only one aspect of their job. The vast majority of them work tirelessly to rid area's of ASB, and generally clean up the area's that they work in to gain massive improvements for the good and law abiding residents. One has worked, in her spare time, to work with young offenders clearing and cleaning out Pensioners gardens. Also getting those same youths to clean up the are of general mess. Another has also worked in her spare time to re-assure the older residents of 1 particular area when they were targets of gangs of kids terrorising the area. Since she took over there, the crime has reduced dramatically and the gangs are becoming less and less. However, come next March, Leeds City council are planning to scrap this valuable asset, in favour of the PCSO??? Leeds, the third largest city in the UK is getting rid of a link between the community and the council. Hull, has the highest number of wardens in the UK and as such has seen crime, environmental, community related problems being reduced year on year, yet LCC, the ever short sighted see's the police and PCSO' as the answer.From my own personal perspective I find this to be intolerable1. Generally the police take ages to respond to anything other than a major serious crime2. Generally the PCSO's are severely limited in what action they can take and can even refuse to carry out an action if they feel threatened!!!! Neighbourhood wardens in my area have worked their miracles in gaining back the status quo that we had prior to the gang culture taking over. We very seldom see a police officer or even the lesser effective PCSO.I ask each and every one of you to bombard your local councillors with protests to save the wardens from being swept away. We can not allow such a stupid decision to be made by LCC. These people are a massive boost to the areas they work and, believe me, without them the life for many many people will gradually worsenPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not let this happen!!!!!!!!!!!!Email your councillors NOW to stop this stupid actionThanks

[chameleon]

We see little or nothing off them Simon, they seem to concentrate in particular areas, not always necessarily where the problems lie unfortunately, but, I have had brief contact with them and from that experience I do agree with you, my feeelings being that there was a dedication evident but a serious lack of resource. Interestingly a short meeting/visit I had was outside the chaps working day to suit me - indicative of something worthwhile I think.If they were under resourced, I wonder how the generalised PCSO will encompass the same breadth of attention giving - or have the understanding.Things may have changed but a couple of years ago, I read a publication promoting PCSOs and was surprised to count, as I recall, 11 different types of PCSO. This was brought home shortly after when upon pointing out a lorry causing a severe and dangerous obstruction to one such individual, the response was 'I don't do traffic' , and that was the start and finish of the matter!

[simonm]

The trouble with PCSO is that they are, first and foremost civilian employees, funded partly by police AND LCC. Trouble is that they can refuse to carry out any work that may entail physical harm (maybe not a bad thing), unlike the police that have to maintain public order, regardless of the harm to their own self, if they even attend that is. Neighbourhood wardens are concentrated in areas that need them. Pretty pointless having them in Wigton lane, for example, where the bulk of their work would probably entail having leaves shifted etc. Areas, like Armley, beeston, holbeck, Halton moor etc all require the link between the public and the council or other official bodies that the public may feel there is not contact with. The council have never really committed themselves to the work that the Wardens do, favouring instead the direct link between Police and public. However, lets face it, how many times do the public approach police / pcso and be fobbed off or worse ignored. I am not claiming that all police / pcso are the same, but the general perception of those two is pretty low, in my opinion anyway. Whereas the wardens ( I grant there will be lazy buggers there as well, but on the whole are a cracking team) are approachable by everyone. I know several that have the ears of the public and are often (as mentioned) passed info that leads to resolutions of long running problems in an area. An example. In Halton, the area behind Matalan has been plagued by gangs in recent years and largely ignored by the police. However, through the sheer dedication of the warden there, new fencing has been put up, alley ways have been gated and the older resident feel much safer now, now that the drunken kids are no longer lounging in the gardens of the pensioners. Just small steps like this help stop the kids hanging round and they disperse. Does it move the problem on? Yes, but when it does them they do the same and eventually it does stop as they have no where else to hide. Wardens also help the kids themselves. An example. In the New Wortley area a kids club was set up with Invizible circle edutainment to get them into an evening club. Started with 3 or o4 kids one friday night by the end of 12 weeks there were over 30. All wanting to be part of the show and being educated into less destructive lives. Without the wardens that wouldn't have happened. Kids educated in a way of NON preaching.An example. In colton (nice area, what could possibly be wrong there) massive problem with fly tipping down in the old village. Through the dedication and vigilance by the local warden several people were successfully taken to court and prosecuted.All three examples above were widely known to the police as problems but NOTHING was ever done by the police to help alleviate them.....PLEASE PLEASE contact local councillors to barrack them into keeping the wardens!!!!! Please.Many thanks

[simonm]

Hoof