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'Our cul-de-sac is no grot spot'
FURIOUS neighbours in a picturesque Stanground cul-de-sac are up in arms that their peaceful neck of the woods has been labelled a grot spot.
FURIOUS neighbours in a picturesque Stanground cul-de-sac are up in arms that their peaceful neck of the woods has been labelled a grot spot.Speaking from spotless Burystead, in Stanground, the crowd of angry residents told The Evening Telegraph how there is not a single scrap of graffiti or litter to been found.
However, the cul-de-sac has been branded as one of five dilapidated grot spots in the city up for a vote by members of the public as the first to be tackled by offenders enrolled on the community payback scheme.
As the neighbours gaze around their flawless cul-de-sac, they explain how they have been left flabbergasted by the Safer Peterborough Partnership's decision to put it up for the vote.
Bill Imlah (52) has lived in Burystead with his wife, Christine (50), for six years.
He said: "What on earth are the offenders going to do when they get here? There's nothing wrong with Burystead, it's perfect.
"We don't get any litter dropped – the odd bit there is we pick up as we go along – and we get no anti-social behaviour here at all, or graffiti.
"People would give their right arm to live here. We're all completely shocked."
June Rollings (79) has a decade of living in the cul-de-sac to look back on.
She said: "My sister lived here when they first built it, and we called it Millionaires' Row back then.
"And it's still the same today - it still is Millionaires' Row. I've lived here myself for 10 years and I know we've never had any trouble – it's so quiet and peaceful."
According to the Safer Peterborough Partnership, which is spearheading the community payback scheme, the five grot spots were chosen based on feedback from neighbourhood policing teams and council workers.
Today, the Safer Peterborough Partnership defended its decision.
Chief Inspector Steve Welby, who is also a community safety strategy manager working with Peterborough City Council, said: "I'm really sorry that people think their area has been wrongly identified.
"I believe the confusion may have come from some residents in Burystead highlighting a nearby area, which is a fence running along the back which is covered in graffiti.
"Although Burystead is the area named, it's not specific to that street, it's that area as a whole.
"It's important to note that the five areas were chosen based on feedback from the community and neighbourhood panel meetings.
"Grot spot sounds bad, but it wasn't a term thought up by the Safer Peterborough Partnership, but by the Home Office, which introduced the campaign."
The national scheme has been introduced in 54 of the 60 neighbourhood crime and justice pioneer areas, of which Peterborough is one, which aim to clean up neighbourhoods and tackle crime more effectively.
One of its main aims is to make community work carried out by offenders more visible to the public, to show justice is being done.
The people of Peterborough are asked to vote – by phone, e-mail or via a website – on one of the five areas, which are in Stanground, Orton Goldhay, Bretton, Paston and close to the city centre.
The voting period ends on April 24, and the winning project will be announced in June.
To vote, call 01733 863800, e-mail martin.harris@cambridgeshire. probation.gsi.gov.uk or visit www.direct.gov.uk/communitypayback.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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