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They have been criticised as the Dad's Army of
police forces with no real powers, but the Government has invested
millions of pounds in neighbourhood wardens schemes.
Norwich City Council was one of the first in the
country to be awarded funding for a pilot scheme.
It hopes they will help tackle crime and social
disorder, drug abuse and litter problems by forming a link with
people who live in their beat areas.
Andy Smith is one of the wardens in the Lakenham
area of Norwich and feels that along with his colleagues, they are
using Government funds to make a difference to everyone's lives.
"Just lately I was speaking to some of the
lads wandering about the area and it had been reported by a member
of the public that he'd seen these lads drop paper, so I asked him
to pick it up," he said.
"He wasn't keen at first, a bit of abuse,
but he soon came round to my way of thinking if you like. He picked
up the litter, put it in the bin that was
alongside him, then we had a talk about why."
 Wandering
around I saw a bike with three lads and recognised the bike
as one that was described to me two or three months ago as one
that was stolen, but what stuck in my mind was that this wasn't
just any ordinary bike. It was a £2,000 specialist racing
bike, so we managed to recover that and I was quite pleased,
so was the owner of it. 
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- Andy Smith
Neighbourhood Warden
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Community spirit
Members of the local council have welcomed the
wardens scheme as they feel it is vital in helping to restore community
spirit.
"There are problems in areas - the best way
to tackle it is to have people on the ground dealing with it locally,"
said Ian Williams, member of Norwich City Council with responsibility
for the community.
"They can basically report areas that need
clearing, for instance cars that have been abandoned. But they can
also deal with neighbourhood disputes and relations - and they can
actually investigate these better because they've got more time
to do it."
"In the long term they have the powers. In
the short term there's nothing like having a policeman turn up and
stop two people fighting. But the longer term goals we are aiming
for are to improve areas of the city," added Mr Williams.
The future
After almost a year in position, the wardens are
proving both successful and popular - so much so a survey is being
commissioned to find out where improvements can be made.
"They've achieved a huge amount already -
in terms of the area looking cleaner and a good proportion of people
living in South East Norwich having a better quality of life,"
said Bob Cronk, the council official who put in the bid to the Government
on behalf of the council.
"There's still a lot of people out there I'm
sure who haven't seen the wardens, haven't heard of the wardens.
I think over the next nine to 12 months we want to change that so
everybody knows there's a wardens scheme," he added.
Most encouraging for the project is that people
in other parts of Norwich are now asking if they can have wardens
too.
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