Neighbours ain't what they used to be

The recent harsh winter highlighted that older people in Wyre experienced a dramatic reduction in mobility leading to a strong sense of isolation and both were compounded by a marked lack of neighbourliness. It is also evident that there are significant numbers of potentially vulnerable residents (young an old) who are neither visible or reachable should the extreme weather return.
Anecdotes apart it is difficult to prove there is a crisis of neighbourliness because it is difficult to measure. Questions like 'how often do you visit neighbours' houses?' or 'how many of your neighbours do you know by name?', questions which largely ignore the subtleties and significance of minimal neighbouring.
The simple, informal interactions between neighbours, such as the nod, the half-smile, the grunt of recognition, are among the building blocks of civil relations.
Recognition of others, rather than having meaningful conversations with neighbours in their houses, is a key indicator of the health of society. These tiny exchanges of acknowledgement combine to form a platform for individual support in time of need and for community action and participation. They constitute a social resource which we are only likely to value when it's gone missing.
You are more likely to knock on someone's door if you are on nodding terms with them.
Changes in the pattern of our lives such as increased use of cars, greater relative wealth, independence and mobility, reliance on state welfare, and privatised leisure have to some extent eroded neighbourly support networks.
For many people, the effect of these transformations can be critical.
If connections between neighbours are thinly-spread and less visible (because
of design, use of cars, lack of local shops, or for other reasons) then it is
not surprising that we begin to experience a vacuum of responsibility in our neighbourhoods. The practice of ‘looking out for’ a neighbour falls to a few or into neglect.
We need to find ways in which neighbourliness can be encouraged at a very local level while at the same time encouraging organisations to share and pool, their knowledge of residents who are potentially at risk in severe weather conditions.
There are currently informal schemes where residents in a particular street “keep an eye out” for each other. These can be simple courtesies such as helping with recycling bins and notifying each other of long absences such as holidays.
Cleveleys Methodists have a group of 25 to 30 community carers who each take responsibility for making regular contact with 4 to 5 homes of residents of all ages. They drop in a newsletter every month and visit them once per quarter.
The Neighbourhood Watch scheme for crime prevention, encourages householders to take responsibility for keeping and eye on other people's houses, and we seek something similar for vulnerable people. This could be achieved through neighbourly observation and with help from service providers such as postmen or milkmen.
There are currently 170 Neighbourhood Watch schemes operating in Wyre covering around 8000 homes. It should be possible to adapt them so that in addition to crime prevention they could be extended to watch out for vulnerable residents in extreme weather conditions.

Research has shown that street parties provide a rare opportunity for all generations to meet in their street for a day. These modest and very British events uniquely ensure that the full range of backgrounds in a community meet, as they are right outside residents’ doors.
They provide an opportunity for residents to meet their neighbours and subsequently come on nodding terms with them
In recent times two national organisations, the Eden Project's Big Lunch and Street Alive have launched street parties as an annual event across the whole country.
There were street parties to celebrate Victoria's jubilee in 1887, George VI's Coronation in 1927, the Queens coronation in 1953, her jubilee in 1977 and Charles and Diana's wedding in 1981.
We have two further reasons in 2011 with the royal wedding and Fleetwood's 175th anniversary.
The powerful effect of street parties was shown recently when Street Alive helped to organise 19 new street parties in Bristol.They carried out post-event door step surveys and the results showed that 97% wanted the street party again and that residents had met an average of 8 new neighbours.
In Wandsworth local people who want to close a road for a street party or summer fete only have to complete one simple form thanks to help from the council.
The forum are currently in discussions with the Wyre Strategic Partnership and a number of churches as to how these ideas can be taken forward. They are very low cost but could lay the foundations for a lifeline when the extreme weather returns.