Investment leads to big drop in crime on Telford's Woodside estate
Crime rates on a housing estate in Telford have dropped by more than half in the 10 years since regeneration work began, new figures have revealed.
Offences in Woodside have plummeted since millions of pounds were spent on building new homes, shops, schools and community facilities since 2004.
Figures obtained by Bellway Homes – which is building 186 homes on the estate – from West Mercia Police show there were 854 recorded crimes in the year to the end of March 2013, compared with 2,018 for 2003/04.
Vehicle crime was down from 202 offences to 55 in the same period, criminal damage was down from 583 to 186, burglaries were down from 311 to 125, and theft and handling offences reduced from 302 to 152.
The figures also showed the number of crimes reported from April 2013 to the end of August was 385, keeping the area on track for a further reduction in crime for 2013/14. The figures were obtained by Bellway under a Freedom of Information request and relate to a one-mile radius of The Pastures, where the company is building the new homes.
Stephen Rose, sales and marketing director, said: "It's clear that New Woodside has changed beyond recognition, both physically and in terms of people's attitudes and aspirations. While there is no shortage of anecdotal evidence of the changes brought about by regeneration, we felt it would be interesting to back this up with some statistics.
"We expected the crime rates to be noticeably lower but could not have anticipated such staggering figures."
As part of the agreement to develop the land which borders Woodside Avenue and Park Lane, Bellway has given £200,000 to local play areas, £6,000 to improve open spaces and a £6,290 wildlife contribution.
