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Gangs will force us to move to new area
• MUCH as the criminal and anti-social behaviour of gangs reported on your front page article sound horrendous, the reality of living in the midst of Crogsland Road and St Silas Place is even worse than you described (Gang rule on the streets of fear, June 7).
I have been living in the Haverstock ward of Kentish Town for over a year now. Never have I experience such a lack of safety and felt so insecure. In desperation, my family is seriously considering leaving the area. Gangs of youths have taken over our neighbourhood.
They intimidate them and prevent them from approaching the front door and getting a peaceful and restful night. They fire loud fireworks, scream and make a terrible racket. I am terrified out of my wits, unable to sleep and desperately worried that sooner or later things will get out of hand.
So far, we have had property stolen from our home by the young people. I was attacked on the street and my handbag was snatched. I lost money, my mobile phone and other important items.
The kids assaulted my partner, kicking him to the ground, leaving him injured, bruised and sore. These kids aren’t afraid of anyone. Not grown-ups, not the police, no one.
We dialled 999 and made statements. We contacted Safer Neighbourhood and reported the kids’ persistent anti-social behaviour.
I have kept in touch with some local police. Yet no response has been apparent.
These gangs of youths seem to be allowed to rule at Denton Estate, Prince of Wales Road, the south end of Malden Road, St Silas Place and environs. We are not the only victims. Local residents have been totally abandoned to their own devices, having to fend for themselves. Daily, all of us fear for our physical safety.
There is going to be a by-election on July 12. If any issue is going to dominate during this particular by-election it will be the lack of safe policing in the Haverstock ward. Whatever self-publicity some Safer Neighbourhood officials might use to promote their political chances, they will not fool those who live on the frontline and suffer criminal and anti-social behaviour day in and day out.
NAME SUPPLIED
St Silas Place, NW5
• AS Chair of Gospel Oak Safer Neighbourhoods Citizens’ Panel, I am most concerned at the exceptionally negative views of the Safer Neighbourhoods police teams in Gospel Oak and Haverstock wards expressed in the CNJ editorial coverage and correspondence. Letters of complaint published in CNJ may actually have more to do with the private agenda of a faction within Haverstock ward than genuine public concern, but I can at least set the record straight. The facts are these:
Gospel Oak in general and Queen’s Crescent in particular have seen progressive reductions in antisocial behaviour, street drinking and moped abuse over the last two years. This has been backed up by anecdotal reports from residents.
Gospel Oak SN police team (GOSNT) has successfully secured nine Asbos against persistent offenders.
GOSNT has successfully closed known drug addresses.
Over 90 per cent of GOSNT arrests have resulted in convictions.
GOSNT has pursued a policy of youth engagement via organising youth football tournaments.
In addition, GOSNT has worked closely with local councillors, council departments and neighbouring teams such as the Heath Constabulary. It has been made clear to problem addresses that continued complaints may threaten their tenancies with the Council.
GOSNT personnel have increased their detailed knowledge of the ward by regular patrols on foot and by bike. They have also varied their shift patterns so as to include late-night and weekend patrols.
GOSNT and the GO Citizens’ Panel are actively pursuing further funding, with the support of local councillors and council departments, to increase the hours of police presence in the ward at key periods such as holiday weekends.
GOSNT, along with other SN teams, are now the primary source for advice in setting up Neighbourhood Watch schemes.
The picture here is of a highly motivated team which over two years has built a solid foundation of community-backed policing in the area. But this is just a start: the key to the SN approach is a long-term strategy of involving the community, not simply in the reduction of crime, but also in reducing the fear of crime.
We fully recognise anxieties about youth disorder in the evenings, but ‘fire-brigade’ policing, involving large numbers of officers from outside the area, can only ever be a temporary fix, and one more likely to create adversarial relationships if it becomes a routine response. A steady policy of securing Asbos against troublesome offenders, along with co-operation with the council housing department and other agencies to bring about firm action against problem addresses, offers a much better chance of bringing problems under control over time.
Residents can also play their part in keeping up a steady stream of information to their Safer Neighbourhood police teams.
CHRIIS FAGG
Chairman
Gospel Oak Safer Neighbourhoods Citizens Panel
• CONGRATULATIONS to the CNJ, shortlisted again for the Free Newspaper of the Year award. Your late-night exclusives, one at 2am on the day of publication have been particularly impressive.
But, and it is a big but, you really took your eye off the ball with a woefully inadequate story on the Haverstock by-election. Anyone reading the CNJ would think this was a two-horse race between Labour and the LibDems. The names of the candidates for the other two parties in this important by-election are the Conservatives and the Greens.
JOHN COLLINS
St Albans Road, NW5
• THE front page report on the escalation in crime on the Denton estate in Haverstock is as alarming as it is timely given the imminent by-election in the ward.
For far too long – right across not only Camden but London as a whole – the issue of anti-social behaviour has simply not been addressed.
We have seen nothing from this Labour government except platitudes and half-baked ideas. And after 38 years of Labour running Camden this is the result. It is far too late quite frankly for Frank Dobson to put in a face in the constituency for it has been his party that has presided over this disaster. Anti-social behaviour was – and still is – one of the biggest issues in the Kentish Town by-election.
As for the Liberals – do not make me laugh. Since taking the Community Safety brief they have flip-flopped back and forth.
Only the community – with the full support of the police – can take control of the streets again. We just need the strong support of the people we elect. One letter writer pointed out that Peter Horne the Conservative Party lives right in the heart of the community. We have been campaigning on this issue since the election was called.
I would urge all the residents of Haverstock to vote for the one candidate who will stand up to gangs, work with the police to eradicate the problem, the only candidate that actually comes from Haverstock.
Stop listening to the Liberal bleat that the only way to stop Labour is to vote for them, and send both of them packing.
RICHARD MERRIN
Deputy Chair Political, Conservative Party, Holborn
• KING'S College history professor and Lib Dem peer Conrad Russell said in 1997 in Hampstead that endemic crime as evidenced in the USA could be regarded as an inevitable consequence of downsized welfare in a very consumerist society.
Now, Lib Dems in Camden are controlled more by Gordon Brown’s purse strings drive for serial ‘efficiency savings’ and ‘market liberalism’ than by their former HL Social Security Spokesperson Earl Russell’s humanitarianism and historical insight.
The Jamestown Centre for mental health service users was recently sold for £1.91 million to balance the council’s books, and more attention is given in local mental health services to a CIP [Cost Improvements Programme] than the Disability Equality Duty for ‘public authorities’ to promote equality for disabled people including mental health service users.
The DED is legally enforceable under the Disability Discrimination Act.
What is ‘efficient public spending’, after all? What will Haverstock ward electors have to say on the matter in the light of history when by-election polling day comes along?
ALAN WHEATLEY
Green Party of England & Wales Disability Spokesperson
Croftdown Road, NW5
• I READ with dismay the lack of safety and policing in other words.
Here in South End Green I am happy to report that Safer Neighbourhood seems to work. We have a 24-hour coverage so there is always someone at the other end of the phone if we see something suspicious which does not require a 999 call. This happened to my friend down the road the other night when he spotted a suspicious vehicle on our street. The police quickly responded to his concern. I was very impressed.
This excellent service is provided presumably using the same resources as other wards in the borough.We have just as many anti-social problems with rowdy youths as elsewhere. We suffer burglaries and other crime. Our shops are just as vulnerable to shoplifting and vandalism as others. Why then do some Safer Neighbourhood teams work out and others do not?Answer that and you may have the solution to the policing crisis in Haverstock and other wards.
EHRENFRIED LIEBICH
Parliament Hill, NW3
• IT'S great to see Frank Dobson out and about with Mike Katz, actually paying attention to people’s daily experiences of anti-social behaviour in Haverstock – unlike Simon Horvac-Marcovic, who just seems to complain that no one believes the Safer Neighbourhood Teams are effective. Perhaps that’s because they clearly aren’t.
Anyone who lives near the area can tell you about the dangerous, abusive and criminal behaviour they constantly experience – which only seems to be getting worse.
ANNA NYBERG
Hawley Road, NW1
•THOSE of us who live here are best-placed to know what the problems are, because we have to face them every day. It’s therefore really important that we have our say in policing priorities for the area.
Living off Malden Road can be a real nightmare. But it’s important to remember that other areas in Haverstock have severe problems with drug and gang crime too. When the new dispersal zone is set out, this should include the area around Eton College Road and Chalk Farm Tube station.
It’s great that Camden has invested in 18 new Police Community Support Officers. Now the Government must follow suit by investing in more police, and freeing them from their desks to actually patrol our streets.
MATHEW SANDERS
St Leonard’s Square, NW5
• WHILE the Lib Dem candidate can perhaps be forgiven for not understanding the recent history, given that he has apparently only just moved to the area, the Council should not be let off the hook so easily.
First, the Lib Dems campaigned against Asbos and refused to take any tough action against trouble-makers while carrying out an unnecessary ‘review’ at taxpayers’ expense.
Then they took an axe to youth provision across the borough, closing play schemes and leaving young people nothing to do.
Now they have allowed the local dispersal zone to lapse, preventing the police from sending groups away if they are causing a nuisance.
It is difficult to know if this shambles is the result of incompetence or another example of the Town Hall simply not caring about people living on estates.
PHIL JONES
Hawley Road, NW1
• IT is nice to know that, now there is a by-election happening, Labour politicians are happy to come and be photographed on our estates.
For those of us who have to live here all year round, the problems with crime and threatening behaviour are far more serious than a convenient back drop.
If Frank Dobson really wanted to tackle crime in Camden he could have advised his Labour colleagues on the council to vote in favour of the 18 new police community support officers soon to be recruited for this area. Instead, Labour councillors voted against an increased police presence.
How can the Labour councillor Mike Katz possibly claim to stand up for people round here when his party has attempted to block every practical measure the council has taken?
BEN GREENING
Chalk Farm Road, NW1
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