NORTHWICH AREA

Witton

Background

Witton Ward lies to the east of Northwich Town Centre. (See Map) It contains 380 hectares. This ward contains the Northwich Town center which offers retail and entertainment outlets. In addition to the residential and business areas much of the town’s industrial structure is to be found in the ward. There are frequent and regular services by bus and the nearest railway station is Northwich, with others at Lostock Hartford and Greenbank. There are two primary schools 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

6404(5.2%)

2847

(5.4%)

1280

(20%)

4128

(64.5%)

996

(15.5%)

38 years

In 2001 there were 2841 households of which 66.6% were owner-occupied and social housing accounted for a further 23.6%.

At the time of the 2001 Census, of those aged between 16 and 74 years 63.4% were economically active which is just above the rate for Vale Royal (62.8%) and above that for England and Wales (60.6%). The unemployed accounted for only 3.7% of whom 13% were aged over 50, 7% had never worked and 28% were long-term unemployed. Those otherwise economically inactive formed 21% of the population in the same age range. Retired people represent 11.8% of the age group.

The 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, this Ward does show serious levels of deprivation. The area known as Danefields is in the worse 10% nationally for overall deprivation and in fact features in the worse 10% for all categories: for environmental factors it is ranked number 30 out of over 32000, where 1 would be the worst. The area to the west covering the town is in the bottom 10% so far as health and employment are concerned.

Crime

Year	Burglary Dwelling	Other Burglary	Vehicle Crime	Other Theft	Criminal Damage	Violent Crime	Other Crimes	Total
2006/07 (½ year)	15	43	92	263	193	168	53	827
2005/06	28	68	131	455	309	314	172	1477 (230.6)
2004/05	43	80	245	246	307	80	529	1530 (238.9)
2003/04	71	94	131	523	240	312	186	1557 (243.1)
2002/03	83	160	72	450	218	207	106	1518 (237)
2001/02	45	71	265	368	177	100	114	1140 (178)

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)	3	47	2	0	2	18	324	150	546
2005/06	5	102	99	3	3	255	245	144	856

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	256	277	209	78	42	5	91	1088
2003/04	186	50	154	65	31	4	113	904
2002/03	112	34	141	49	17	6	90	674
2001/02	248			22	7	7	63	555

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.