Would you trust your neighbours with copies of your house keys?

The survey revealed some very interesting facts, not least that very few of us know our neighbours as well as our parents and grandparents did years back!

This is something we may not think about much, and it is only when the question is actually posed that we have to admit to ourselves that we probably don’t know the first thing about our neighbours, let alone trust them with keys to our homes!

Over a third of the people who took part in the survey admitted to not even knowing their neighbour’s names and over half had never invited their neighbour in for a coffee.  Not surprisingly, over two thirds of all those questioned said they would not entrust a spare set of their house keys to their neighbours.

Is this lack of neighbourly and community spirit just an inevitable outcome of the increasingly fast paced and hectic lifestyles we all seem to lead now-a-days or is it a more concerning indictment of the lack of confidence and mistrust we now, almost inherently, seem to harbour for strangers.

There is no question that over the last decade, day-to-day life has become increasingly hectic and fast paced. Families are divided, living apart from each other, often all across the country and in many instances in different countries.  People have headed for the  cities in search of bigger careers, couples are leaving it later to  start families and even when they do, both parents will invariably continue to go out to work, their children spending time with the child minder or at the nursery.  Gone are the days of new mums staying at home in their children’s early years, having coffee mornings and socializing with their neighbours who invariably also had babies or young children; in these modern times many neighbours may not even be aware when there is a new arrival in a household!

The younger generation are now possibly widening their horizons more than ever before, perhaps university, then off travelling the world! We have a wider ethnic culture amongst us and as crime rates grow our concerns for our security means closed doors to the open street!

 With these many and wide-reaching changes that are sweeping across our local neighbourhoods, many are warning that the ‘local community’ as we have known it, is becoming a thing of the past.

With the growing crime rates and rise in the number of burglaries we are seeing, especially in the economic climate that we have at present, we are leaving ourselves more exposed and vulnerable by not knowing our neighbours as well as our parents and their parents did in years gone by.

Believe it or not, simply by adopting the basic, fundamental essence of the ‘community’ we can, united, act as a deterrent to the would-be burglar. 

When you enter one of the rare neighbourhoods that still have this atmosphere of togetherness and unity, you are immediately aware of being noticed as an ‘outsider’, someone who is not usually seen around the community.  The odd curtain twitching, the second glances that you receive when walking down the street can certainly feel a little off-putting, imagine how enhanced that feeling would be if you were up to no-good, if for example you were a burglar, planning to target one of the houses in that neighbourhood!

Without question, crime statistics show that close communities experience less random acts of burglary and vandalism than the more ‘anonymous’ towns and cities where neighbours barely know who each other are.

In many ways such a conclusion is obvious, but the majority of us make little or no attempt to build (or in many cases re-build) relationships with those living in and around our districts. There are many things we could do, simply starting by getting to know our neighbours, offering help when it was needed.  It wouldn’t take much, but if we all succeeded we could grow our communities and help ourselves and everyone else around us feel more safe and secure

So, perhaps next time you see your neighbour or neighbours just taking two minutes to say hello or start a conversation; not only could it potentially lead to a good friendship, but could also end up proving good security for your home!