Do you have that neighbourly spirit?



“Neighbours, Everybody needs good neighbours

– Neighbours Theme Song.

 

OK, I admit it – I was singing along to that as I typed it – I know you all know it too (whether you want to or not!)

 

I have lived in my house for 9 years and I know the names of all the shop keepers in the next road and the names of those who live in my terrace.  There are 4 houses in my terrace and I know those neighbours.  There are 4 houses behind mine and I have only ever said Hi in passing to those neighbours. 

 

The house on the corner opposite is owned by a lovely couple who we talk to in passing and sometimes walk the dog’s together – they came over with presents when Harry was born and are lovely but we hardly know them and they have lived her longer than us.

 

I get on really well with my immediate neighbours – those in my terrace – they take in my parcels when I’m out, I can borrow sugar, milk or ask favours from them occasionally and they know they can ask the same from us and have done on accessions.  It’s nice to know that they will look out for us should we need it – often they have knocked on the door asking if we have seen something or telling us about problems with kids in the area.

 

There was a period where we had a problem with the local kids who thought it was funny to kick off car wing mirrors of all our cars – all the cars in my road were hit in this way at least 4 times, costing us all lots of money.  Having good neighbours helped as if one of us forgot to push our mirrors in when parking up, we would do it for them, this curbed the problem for a while.  Police were involved in the end and touch wood it hasn’t happened for a while.

 



Swinton recently compiled a survey to investigate which regions and cities rank the highest in terms of neighbourly spirit – find out the results below: