Estate to be no go area for cold callers?

A SCHEME to make a Warrington housing estate a no-go area for doorstep traders is to be considered by the borough council.
It follows a survey carried out in the Poplars and Hulme ward at Orford which revealed overwhelming support from residents for a pilot scheme to stop “cold calling” in the area.
Coun Brian Maher (pictured) raised the issue at a meeting of the borough council and asked for highway signage to be erected in the ward making it known it was a “no go area for cold calling.”
Coun Maher told the council residents were “suffering in silence” because they seldom reported incidents of aggressive door step selling to either the police or Trading Standards.
Coun John Kerr-Brown said “no cold calling zones” had been established in other parts of the country for some years.
The survey in Poplars and Hulme had shown that a surprising number of people found foot-in-the-door salesmen very threatening.
He felt that signage in the area could deter people with criminal intent from knocking on the doors of vulnerable people.
Executive board member Coun Fiona Bruce said cold calling by doorstep sales people was a serious issue and it was a fact that some residents were very vulnerable.
The average loss suffered by victims was more than £2,000.
But she wondered if erecting signs in one particular ward might be a disadvantage.
They could, in fact, attract rogue traders.
She would be interested to know the views of Trading Standards officers and believed the council should look at the issue very carefully.
In fact, Poplars and Hulme was not one of the worst affected wards in Warrington and it seemed rogue traders were often attracted to the more affluent areas