We often pay for a service and then not receive it. Â I am frequently asked to donate money to my children's school, even though funds should come from local and central taxation. I doubt if Christies Hospital would still exist if it were not for public donations, yet the NHS is a bottomless moneypit.
I would happily pay a little extra to have a police presence in Marple. It doesn't have to be the businesses that pay, its just that that is how they chose to do it in Wilmslow.
If each person in Marple donated 25p per month that would raise about £69,000 per year, or £1,300 per week, to pay overtime for a couple of police officers to patrol Marple on a weekend evening. Sounds reasonable. Its done as overtime in Wilmslow.
Of course not everyone would be willing to pay. I for one would happily pay 20 times that amount, or more, to help make the streets safer for people to walk, property not to be damaged and even maybe have glass in the bus shelters and phone boxes on a Sunday morning.
I'm not being negative or poo pooing your ideas, just offering an alternative. I'm more for prevention than victim support, we probably need both.