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Lib Dems failing us on disorder
• IF the Lib Dem candidate really wants to fight the Haverstock by-election on the Town Hall’s anti-social behaviour record then he should be straight with people, as their track record after just one year is woeful.
Labour fought hard for local people to ensure that anti-social behaviour was tackled promptly and effectively.
At each step of the way we were opposed publicly and privately by the Lib Dems.
They spoke against Asbos and dispersal zones.
One of the first steps they took was to launch a year-long review of anti-social behaviour policy.
This was universally seen as sending mixed messages.
As a result, extra funding for the carrot-and-stick approaches of the Respect agenda, described as “draconian” by Councillor Rawlings, was delayed.
Camden also lost nationally respected officers like Ian Walker MBE to other authorities, which can't have helped.
We have learned from the New Journal that the police that Lib Dem leaflets say are on the streets haven’t even been hired yet and aren’t expected for months.
There was delay and confusion over whether the dispersal zone in Haverstock would be renewed, as evidenced by concerns from local people in your letters pages. Over the weekend a car was torched on Hartland Road.
Delivering a new deal on youth disorder for Haverstock and Gospel Oak should be a priority for the Tory/Lib Dem administration at the Town Hall.
Sadly, the ostrich tendency seems to be in charge.
CLLR ANNA STEWART
Labour Leader of the Opposition
• ALAN Wheatley is clearly wrong to blame economics and supposed welfare cuts for the crime epidemic in Haverstock.
It is insulting to suggest to a victim of mugging, or a shop owner whose windows have been smashed, that their bling-laden assailants were inspired by deprivation or by cuts to a local law centre.
The late Lord Russell, whom he cites as a source for his assertion, was an admirable historian whom I once met at King’s College on the Strand, and whose writings on the Scottish and Irish dimensions of the Civil War did much to illuminate this period for the lay reader.
But by the time of Lord Russell’s death in 2004, crime in New York had already fallen dramatically, as a result of more aggressive and visible policing and a clampdown on the sort of anti-social behaviour (for example, graffiti and fare-dodging on public transport) that makes decent people feel intimidated and which allows thugs to feel they can commit worse crimes with impunity.
To judge by this letter, it does not seem that the Green Party has much of a serious contribution to make to reducing crime.
TIMOTHY BARNES
Address supplied
• I WAS disturbed to hear that residents and shopkeepers from Malden Road, NW5 have been prevented from making a deputation to the full council meeting on Monday about the crime and anti-social behaviour in their area.
I know from talking to local businesses that this very real problem – as reported in the pages of the CNJ recently – hurts them too.
When families can’t even pop out in the evening to the local shops to get a pint of milk or a pizza without running the gauntlet of gangs, both shopkeepers and residents suffer.
What do people in the Malden Road area have to do to make the Lib Dems in the Town Hall take notice of this pressing issue?
They must feel it is the final insult that they aren’t even allowed to explain to their democratically elected representatives on the council how serious the problem is, and request that urgent action is taken to make things better.
The Lib Dems promised to be a ‘listening council’ when they got elected.
What a joke.
Instead of treating residents with even a modicum of respect, they have become arrogant and scornful of their real concerns.
MIKE KATZ
Labour candidate, Haverstock Ward,
Gladys Road, NW6
• FOR the second week running I’ve read the CNJ and been bemused at the Malden Road/Crogsland Road mega-crimewave that is apparently going on.
I only live a few hundred yards away and I’ve not noticed it.
I’m not saying our area is paradise or there is no crime, but these reports seem to be a massive exaggeration.
Excuse my cynicism, but it looks to me as though both the Liberal and Labour parties are manufacturing this hype in the run-up to the forthcoming by-election in our ward, so that they can then compete to be the champion of the toughest solution.
NICKI RENSTEN
Ferdinand Street, NW1
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