NORTHWICH AREA

Barnton

 Follow this link to BARNTON NEWS

Background

Barnton Ward sits to the north-west of the town of Northwich and is predominantly a residential area based on an old village centre. It consists of 305 hectares.

In this ward there are a few local shops, but there is a library, the Barnton Community primary school, a recreation ground and the Memorial Hall. The A53 from Northwich to Runcorn and Liverpool runs through this ward. There is a regular bus service to Northwich where residents obtain most of their needs. The nearest railway stations are at Greenbank and Hartford. (See Map)

Facts and Figures

The demographic characteristics of Barnton reflect those for Vale Royal Borough and the whole of England and Wales. In Barnton there were 2280 households in 2001 of which 80% were owner-occupied, social housing accounted for a further 14% and the remainder were in private rented accommodation. 

At the time of the 2001 Census, of those aged between 16 and 74 years, 66.9% were economically active which is slightly above the rate for Vale Royal (65%) and that for England and Wales (60.6%). The unemployed accounted for 3.3% of whom 14% were aged over 50, 8% had never worked and 22% were long-term unemployed. Those otherwise economically inactive formed 15.8% of the population in the same age range. Retired people represent 14% of the age group. 

Barnton Ward is divided into four areas for the purpose of measuring social and economic disadvantage. According to the Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004, none of the Barnton areas show any particularly high levels of deprivation. However the southern section of the ward is just outside the bottom 20% nationally as suffering environmental deprivation based on housing quality, air quality and road safety. The north-east section features in the top 10% nationally for income factors in that few people are on low income or in receipt of benefits.

Crime

Year	Burglary Dwelling	Other Burglary	Criminal Damage	Vehicle Crime	Other  Theft	Violent Crime	Other Crimes	Total
2006/07 (½ year)	12	6	57	17	22	21	19	154
2005/06	16	16	74	15	53	75	26	275 (49.7)
2004/05	29	8	63	25	40	16	65	246 (45.5)
2003/04	22	20	85	40	42	40	25	274 (50)

Note:Figures in brackets are per 1000 population

Disorder

In 2005/06 new categories of Anti-social behaviour were used by the police making it difficult to compare previous years. During the past year the following incidents were recorded by the police.

Street Drinking Vehicle Nuisance Abandoned Vehicles Noise - Pubs/Clubs Environmental Litter, graffiti, etc. Nuisance in public place Rowdy/ drunken behaviour Other Total 2006/07 (½ year) 0 25 2 0 1 7 120 50 205 2005/06 4 21 21 2 1 94 55 45 243

The figures for previous years were as follows:

			Disturbance in
Year	Nuisance Youths	General Disorder	Public place	Private place	Licensed premises	Noise nuisance	Domestic Incident	Total
2004/05	117	101	31	34	6	2	42	390
2003/04	78	2	28	26	2	3	38	279
2002/03	75	10	39	10	4	4	41	255
2001/02	135			9	0	5	28	255

The highest category of complaints to the police were about youths causing a nuisance. For the year 2001 – 02 ‘Nuisance Youths’ was not a separate category but were contained within ‘Disturbance in a public place. 

Of the other forms of disturbance not listed in the table are telephone nuisance of either an abandoned call, hoax or threatening/abusive nature and minor /other nuisance issues including neighbour disputes.