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Tipped off, but police failed to grab thieves
• AROUND 1pm on March 10 we had just walked past West Hampstead police station, in Fortune Green Road, when we observed, within shouting distance of the station, three men dismantling the old York stone pavement around the fountain on the Green.
They had some yellow pipes stacked on a flat-back truck and had cordoned off the “work area” with appropriate barriers and signage, redirecting pedestrians away from the work.
Strange, we thought, that Camden Council or its outside contractors should be working on a Saturday. The flat-back lorry had a white cab with the name ‘Morrisons’ in a sans serif typeface, colour green. What was also slightly odd was that the York stone was being loaded onto the truck and not stacked to one side as the work progressed.
We are aware, as many others may be, that there has in the past been thefts of such stone from the streets of London. We became concerned and, on arriving home, phoned the police to inform them of our suspicions. We made it clear that what we had just witnessed might be quite legitimate but that checking the situation could do no harm, and asked if a police officer or community support officers could go and investigate the scene.
Alas, three hours later the police phoned back, inquiring if the truck was still there and whether we had taken down the number on the licence plate.
We were a little taken aback and pointed out that, with the police station less than a minute’s walking distance away, they had had three hours to investigate the scene for themselves.
At this point, we were told that no officers had been available and that they would make inquiries to Camden Council in the following week.
After a week we noted that no further work had taken place. The barriers remained and the York stone was gone.
We spoke to our local councillor, who also suspected theft but later consoled us with the news that it was council work and nothing to worry about. She would insist that the York stone be put back in its original position.
Today, the large irregular hole where the York stone paving once lay has been filled in with black tarmac. Oh yes! The stone had been stolen.
The police missed their chance (the thieves could and should have been caught red-handed) and the quality of our environment has dipped to a new low. It seems that extra resources, a high community charge and a not-so-well informed or organised Camden Council failed us… yet again. As for Neighbourhood Watch... how sad!
Does the council outsource such maintenance work and, if so, are trucks marked ‘Morrisons’ involved? Will the culprits be apprehended? Could it have been an “inside” job?
ROBIN COLLINGWOOD AND MICHELE WHYTE
Agamemnon Road, NW6
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