RURAL AREAS

Cuddington & Oakmere

Background

Cuddington Ward sits to the west of the town of Northwich and contains the residential areas of Cuddington and Sandiway, where the bulk of the population live, and the rural area known as Oakmere . The ward contains 2013 hectares. The Blakemere Craft Centre is a major attraction within the ward. There are bus services into Northwich and the area is served by railway stations at Cuddington, Delamere and Hartford. There are two primary schools at Cuddington and Sandiway, a library and shops at Sandiway and Cuddington. (See Map)

Facts and Figures

Population& % of Vale Royal	Number of households& % of VR	Population under 16 years	Population 16 to 64 years	Population 65 years and over	Average Age
5766 (4.7%)	2350 (4.5%)	963 (16.7%)	3592 (62.3%)	1211 (21%)	44years

In 2001 there were 2349 households of which 85% were owner-occupied and social housing accounted for a further 8%.

At the time of the 2001 Census, of those aged between 16 and 74 years 61.5% were economically active which is just below the rate for Vale Royal (62.8%) and above that for England and Wales (60.6%). The unemployed accounted for only 2.2% of whom 37% were aged over 50, 3% had never worked and 30% were long-term unemployed. Those otherwise economically inactive formed 16.3% of the population in the same age range. Retired people represent 20% of the age group.

Cuddington and Oakmere 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 areas show any particularly high levels of deprivation. The northern and eastern sections of this ward feature in the top 10% of least deprived wards nationally, and the northern and extensive western sections in the top 10% as regards income factors in that few people are on low income or in receipt of benefits. However, the large western section suffers as regards housing and is in the bottom 20% nationally as suffering unsatisfactory standards of housing, owner-occupation and access to essential services.

Crime

Year	Burglary Dwelling	Other Burglary	Vehicle Crime	Other Theft	Criminal Damage	Violent Crime	Other Crimes	Total
2006/07 (½ year)	5	14	9	20	27	15	16	106
2005/06	22	35	36	55	50	41	26	265 (45.9)
2004/05	5	33	67	44	53	7	57	266 (46.1)
2003/04	38	41	64	46	46	28	24	287 (50)

Note: Figures in brackets are for offences 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)	1	6	2	0	1	1	73	23	107
2005/06	5	22	20	0	0	53	36	39	175

The figures for previous years were as follows:

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.

			Disturbance in
Year	Nuisance Youths	General Disorder	Public place	Private place	Licensed premises	Noise nuisance	Domestic Incident	Total
2004/05	59	66	34	19	4	7	34	245
2003/04	58	4	20	15	2	0	26	198
2002/03	21	1	23	3	0	2	15	114
2001/02	59			7	4	3	8	134

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.