Neighbourhood Watch volunteers work three million days a year in total, a new survey found.

Coordinators for the community safety group spend, on average, two days a month dealing with neighbourhood issues, with tackling anti-social behaviour the most time-consuming task.

Improving the local environment has become a job for 63 per cent of volunteers while 37 per cent have dealt with parking and traffic problems and 34 per cent with burglaries.

The poll was carried out by neighbourhoodwatch.net to mark the 25th anniversary since the first UK Neighbourhood Watch group was formed.

Roy Rudham, chair of the UK Neighbourhood Watch Trust, said: "The role of Neighbourhood Watch in the community has changed significantly since it began 25 years ago.

"The old image of Neighbourhood Watch as a curtain-twitchers’ charter is a long way wide of the mark.

"In today’s Britain groups of neighbours are making their voices heard on a range of issues that affect their local communities," he added.

The first Watch group was set up in 1982 in the village of Mollington, Cheshire, in response to a spate of burglaries in the area.

Now six million households are members, according to Home Office figures.