Statistics which show Crawley as one of the least peaceful places to live in Sussex have been branded as ‘rubbish.’
Last week the Observer reported how the UK Peace Index, produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, ranked the town 215th out of 343 council areas in the country and scored it lower than its neighbouring areas Mid Sussex (8th) and Horsham (14th).
The report said the town struggled with violence, weapon crime and public disorder.
Commenting on our Facebook page, Lorraine Pollard, branded the findings ‘rubbish.’
She said: “I love crawley, lived here all my life, never read such rubbish.”
But Sarah Hildreth said: “Recently moved away from Crawley to Mid Sussex, whilst I lived in Crawley actually I didn’t mind it so much, But since moving I would never go back! There are much nicer quieter places to live.”
Crawley Borough Council said it had been working hard to reduce overall crime in Crawley and between 2005 and 2011 it had dropped by 40 per cent.
A spokesman for the council said: “The Safer Crawley Partnership helped to reduce overall crime and has tackled violent crime in many ways. These include high visibility patrols of police and community wardens in the town centre at night, piloting an adult street drinker/drugs misuse project and creating Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences to engage with individuals vulnerable to violent radicalism, to protect high-risk victims of hate crime and domestic and sexual violence. The partnership also launched a project to reduce adult re-offending and ex-offender mentoring, opened a police office in Broadfield Barton, introduced new arrangements for monitoring and managing community tension and spent more than £90,000 on community safety initiatives.”
Cllr Bob Lanzer (Con, Pound Hill South and Worth, leader of the borough council, added: “I would caution against reliance on one headline measure for defining how peaceful or safe a location is. We have seen some reductions in crime recorded in Crawley.”
See Your View, pages 30 and 31.