Camden New Journal - Letters: Finally, mystery of boiler room sabotage is being investigated

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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 27 September 2007

Finally, mystery of boiler room sabotage is being investigated

• AT last someone has taken seriously the story of the £120,000 sabotage of the gas supply to the Maiden Lane estate in December last year.
Well done to the CNJ for printing this exposé of sloppiness by the police and indifference by the council (No inquiry into £120k sabotage, September 20).
Time and again I tried to get the police to take seriously the official opinion of the council’s senior engineer that sabotage had caused the problem. In vain did I explain to the police that sabotage was a criminal offence. They were just not interested.
Their spokesman says there was “no evidence of a crime having taken place”. But if you don’t look for evidence then naturally you don’t find it. They thought only in terms of a break-in.
Significantly, the police could not be bothered even to interview the keyholders to the boiler room where the main gas stopcock had been turned off illegally – or to take any fingerprints.
Camden Council was just as bad. In spite of the huge bill involved, there was no final report at all, and the internal auditors missed the point entirely and made no inquiry into the criminality either.
For nine months I have been struggling to get this matter re-examined on behalf of the estate residents and taxpayers. Only now, with the help of the New Journal, is there a chance that this episode will be looked at properly.
But there has been fallout from this sad episode:
1. Residents who at first were offered recompense over costs have now had their compensation denied them by the council.
2. A search through the files has found that there have been two previous identical gas sabotage incidents in the same boiler room – a fact concerning which the council has been quite indifferent.
3. Having raised this complaint against the police on behalf of the residents I, like Beverly Gardner, vice-chairwoman of Haverstock Safer Neighbourhood Panel, have been similarly ousted from my own safer neighbourhood panel in Cantelowes where I have given years of voluntary service!
What is going on? I think we should be told.
Dr Peter Preston
Former vice-chairman, Maiden Lane Estate Management Board, former Maiden Lane Safer Neighbourhood Panel delegate

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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