I’m writing in response to the letter from Amanda Stannard (April 13) headlined: “Greenstead is getting worse and our concerns are ignored”.

Like Amanda, I have lived on the estate for five years, and during that time I have noted a gradual improvement as a result of investment and a lot of hard work by our elected representatives and the various agencies Amanda referred to.

Crime has certainly reduced, and by “crime” I mean incidents of burglary, theft and antisocial behaviour, which are precisely the kind of issues people do report to the police.

There have been days of action, when a concerted and organised approach to various local problems has yielded real and measurable results.

Since the creation of Colchester Academy, the behaviour of local young people on their way to and from school has improved enormously – and this is reflected in the improvement of exam results.

Of course, Greenstead is not a perfect place, and there remains work to be done.

Much of which is, of course, hampered by Government cutbacks, but no one should belittle or talk down the very real achievements that have already been made.

I am the independent chair of the St Andrews and St Annes Neighbourhood Action Panel, and we are ready to do all we can to help with any problems the residents of Balfe Court may be experiencing.

But we can’t respond to problems we don’t know about, so I hope very much the representatives of the Balfe Court Neighbourhood Watch will attend our next meeting, where we will be able to begin to tackle these with the same multi-agency approach that has already yielded real benefits and improvements elsewhere on the estate.

The Rev Martin Peirce
Pastor
Greenstead Evangelical Free Church

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