NORTHWICH AREA

Castle

Follow this link to CASTLE NEWS

Background

Castle Ward lies to the west of Northwich Town Centre. (See Map)It contains 172 hectares. The ward is largely residential with retail, business and light industrial areas. There are frequent and regular services by bus and the nearest railway stations are at Greenbank, Hartford and Northwich. There is one primary school in the ward.

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

5980

(4.8%

2565

(4.9%)

1205

(20.1%)

4010

(67.1%)

765

(12.8%)

37 years

In 2001 there were 2565 households of which 72.6% were owner-occupied and social housing accounted for a further 16.6%; the remainder were in private rented accommodation.

At the time of the 2001 Census, of those aged between 16 and 74 years 68% were economically active which is above the rate for Vale Royal (5%) and above that for England and Wales (60.6%). The unemployed accounted for only 3.4% of whom 18% were aged over 50, 4% had never worked and 26% were long-term unemployed. Those otherwise economically inactive formed 18% of the population in the same age range. Retired people represent 10.7% of the age group.

The ward is divided into four ares for the purpose of measuring social and economic disadvantage. According to the Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004, this Ward does show levels of deprivation. Overall the southern area of the ward is in the bottom 20% nationally and it is in the same as regards employment. The western area, that covering Moss farm is in the bottom 10% as regards environmental issues. However, the north and east area is in the top 10% nationally as regards housing.

Crime

Year	Burglary Dwelling	Other Burglary	Vehicle Crime	Other Theft	Criminal Damage	Violent Crime	Other Crimes	Total
2006/07 (½ year)	16	18	23	40	85	92	5	279
2005/06	21	32	35	91	204	163	37	583 (97.4)
2004/05	20	61	100	67	126	17	106	497 (83.1)
2003/04	24	60	37	87	122	123	29	482 (80.6)

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)	0	20	3	0	0	12	139	65	236
2005/06	3	45	35	1	0	126	152	93	455

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	152	135	67	55	8	5	73	555
2003/04	86	16	50	45	2	6	80	415
2002/03	72	13	64	29	0	5	72	351
2001/02	109			11	5	6	47	298

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. The totals include these matters.