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Long-term strategy needed to beat gangs
• BOYS, young and in their teens, are finally coming out to practise their football skills on the pitch at St Silas because the gangs have moved away, and yet Haverstock ward is itself being used as a political football in the July 12 by-election.
Apparently, every resource has been diverted to the Malden Road-Prince of Wales Road hotspots to combat anti-social behaviour.
Increased levels of anti-social behaviour along Malden and Prince of Wales roads surfaced in June 2005 and were dealt with, only to resurface with a vengeance more than a year ago. Agencies allowed the problem to fester, and to hell with residents and shopkeepers.
Do we have a long-term strategy in place so that the young and old can live and go about their business in safety? Is Haverstock ward being given any of the extra allocation of police to support our already hard-pressed Safer Neighbourhoods police team?
No, we have been palmed off with temporary measures so the powers-that-be can sleep easy in their beds at night, something not afforded to the residents, tenants and shopkeepers of Malden Road.
YASMIN ALLEN
Malden Road, NW5
BEVERLEY GARDNER
Athlone Street, NW5
NANCY WILD
Malden Road, NW5
ABDI MOHAMED
Malden Road, NW5
• PAUL Keilthy’s exposé of the young “hoodies” who hang around Malden Road and nearby estates in Haverstock ward was interesting, but the arguments presented by his subjects were far from persuasive (‘It’s not like, if someone comes in they are going to be stabbed. Everyone is free to walk through here’, June 21).
The problem is that, in gangs, youths who tend to be immature do things which are often reprehensible and which might lead to a volatile, dangerous situation.
One of the boys interviewed claims residents “are free to walk through here”. But try to say this to a friend of mine, a nice young man in his 20s who lives in that area and was recently attacked violently by a gang of kids.
His crime? He tried to recover a bike which had been stolen from his home. He ended up being pushed to the ground, kicked violently by several of the boys and left writhing in agony on the pavement.
This is an incident which could easily have turned into a serious crime. When my friend appeared at my door early the next morning, I was shocked and dismayed to find him black and blue with bruises and suffering from kidney pain.
This is only one example of what goes on in that area. I know a woman whose bag was snatched by youths and had money stolen which she could ill afford to lose. Try telling her it is safe to walk in and out of her home without fearing the worst.
While it may be easy for blinkered Nicky Rensten to dismiss the plight of those who suffer day in and day out just down the road from her, I cannot remain so unmoved by the suffering of my neighbours (Lib Dems failing us on disorder, June 21).
I too live far enough away not to be targeted, but I still feel genuine concern for residents and shopkeepers of the Malden Road-Prince of Wales Road area. I have met them and seen the evidence of damage caused by youths. I can assure you that life for them is truly hell on earth.
This problem is not just a political issue. Now that residents have decided to speak up about their plight, nothing will silence them. They have just begun.
Even after the by-election, they will continue to shout their anger and frustration at having been abandoned by an apparently unconcerned police force and their council.
CELINE LA FRENIERE
Talacre Road, NW5
• THE new dispersal zone for Haverstock – the result of co-operation between local people, police and the council – is to be welcomed. Those of us who live on this corner of Malden Road are fed up with feeling intimidated in our own street.
People in the Eton College Road area will also be pleased to see that this time the dispersal zone has been enlarged to take in Chalk Farm. This should help tackle the problems at Constable House, and recognises that anti-social behaviour in Haverstock is linked with the drug trade in the surrounding area.
Local people, through the Safer Neighbourhoods team, have been feeding the police information they need about problem individuals. The council is delivering extra police community support officers, with more powers in the problem areas. The police now have the power, the resources and the intelligence. They must use all three in the fight to make our area safer.
MATT SANDERS
Lib Dem candidate, Haverstock
St Leonard’s Square, NW5
• THE Friends of Talacre Gardens received a copy of the plan of the park from the parks and open spaces department, implying we mark the boundary of the proposed town green.
This was an encouraging gesture and we were quick to spread the good news to park users and those who inundate us with calls of concern.
However, having submitted our red-line plan and given all relevant information, the parks and open spaces department has suddenly gone quiet. Why?
Has it been told to ignore residents until after the Haverstock by-election?
This is a fair warning to the coalition: come to the hustings at 7pm tonight (Thursday) at St Silas Church Hall with answers.
Any nonsense about “purdah” or some sort of embargo applying to allegedly contentious issues before a by-election will be interpreted with deep cynicism. Furthermore, the appeal from David Landman for a retired judge or lawyer to join the Friends’ committee to advise us on legal matters has resulted in a top-notch working barrister who specialises in the law on commons land offering his assistance.
The town green should be a matter for rejoicing. We have already planned to invite the Lord Chancellor’s morris men to celebrate in the hope of Talacre Gardens becoming London’s first town green under the 2006 act.
However, should there be any needless delay or hesitation about this application, we are prepared to fight. The Friends might have to apply for town green status themselves rather than leave it to Camden to do it.
Any rejection of the Friends’ application would lead to an appeal. The adverse publicity for Camden would be deplorable.
It is now up to the council to decide which it will be. Delay causes suspicion. Will it be a local celebration or confrontation?
PETER CUMING
Acting chairman, Friends of Talacre Gardens, NW5
• MY husband and I have two boys who play at Talacre Gardens. We live in a small flat in a nearby housing estate, so I cannot begin to tell you just how important this park is for us.
Without it, we would be confined to our small living quarters without any outside space where our kids can play to their hearts’ content.
Ever since a developer set eyes on Dalby Street as a site for a seven-storey building, we have been deeply worried about various threats of encroachment on the park by that scheme.
Things came to a head in the past year when the developer announced there was going to be a road going through Talacre Gardens. No one believed it would be temporary.
I would therefore urge the powers-that-be to grant residents the safety and reassurance of a town green. The sooner, the better.
It would mean so much to this community to know that no one could ever again try to encroach on our park or give us the anxiety we have experienced over these past years.
JENNIE SPRIGGS
Rhyl Street, NW5
• THE Lib Dems seem to have shot themselves in the foot (Genuine fears about future of open space, June 21).
Who in their right mind would believe that registering a small park as a town green would break some electoral law? I thought this is something everyone had already agreed would be good for the community, not least three of the political contenders (including theirs) for the Haverstock by-election. So why this mysterious backing off? Many questions need to be answered.
TREVOR PONTING
Wilkin Street, NW5
• GORDON Brown wanted Lib Dems for his new government. Voters in Camden’s Haverstock ward can have one.
The Haverstock by-election will be an early test of political opinion following the departure of Tony Blair, and national as well as local media will be interested in the outcome.
In Haverstock the issue will be keenly fought between Labour (whose former councillor and now honorary alderman Roy Shaw set a local government record with more than 50 years’ uninterrupted service) and the Lib Dems, who finished just 21 votes behind the Labour candidate at last year’s borough elections.
Is it too much to hope that in the period of less tribal and more inclusive politics that Gordon Brown claims to be ushering in, Labour Party spokespersons in Camden will stop spreading misleading calumnies about the Lib Dems as regards, for example, crime statistics, alleged cuts in youth and old people’s services, imagined threats to the Freedom Pass and so on?
There are real political issues between our two parties, of course, but each should be content to win votes by urging what it stands for – and not by trying to frighten people with misinformation about their opponents. Full marks to Matt Sanders, the Lib Dem candidate in Haverstock, for a positive campaign.
ROBIN YOUNG
Bedford Avenue, WC1
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