WE do not doubt that good intentions underlie the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust's "resident support" workshops.

Yet a thin line separates neighbourliness and snooping. Judging by the angry reaction of New Earswick villagers tonight, the trust has crossed that line.

Trust workers are being trained to spot residents' potential problems while repairing their homes. This is designed to assist the New Earswick landlord with its duty of care to tenants.

For years the milkman and postie kept an eye out for the most vulnerable residents on their rounds. The trust's tradesmen and women already do the same on an informal basis.

But to put this friendly concern on to an official footing, even in the good name of Rowntree paternalism, is to invite claims of "big brother" surveillance.

The fictional case studies in the workshops make uneasy reading. Is it really the business of a worker to note how many empty beer cans are outside someone's home? Would a fiercely independent old woman ask a workman to open a tin of beans if she feared this request may summon a visit by social services?

And the workshops put trust staff in an awkward position. As one put it: "We are tradesmen, not social workers."

The trust did not seek tenants' approval for this scheme. Having not been consulted, let alone given their consent, many villagers will consider it an invasion of their privacy.

Updated: 11:21 Wednesday, February 02, 2005