No extension of community wardens scheme

Dec 11 2009 by Lex Brown, Irvine Herald

PLANS to set up an extra community wardens scheme in North Ayrshire have been kicked into touch.

The council executive have ditched the idea because they couldn’t agree where to base the proposed new team.

Instead the local authority to review the entire scheme in conjunction with the police.

The executive heard the dreaded word “cuts” and were reminded they were facing £41m of budget reductions.

They had agreed to fund a new team last February but events have been overtaken by the current financial restrains on budgets.

A comprehensive analysis of where the new team might be based was carried out.

Information was gathered from police records and the council’s own housing department in relation to complaints about anti-social behaviour.

But the results were inconclusive and failed to identify a single area which would benefit from the provision of a community warden team.

This week the executive agreed to shelve the proposals and to conduct a review of the scheme with the possibility of providing mobile teams to work between areas.