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Why have we been abandoned to the criminals in 'no-go' area?
• I WRITE as a long-time resident of Malden Road where I have raised – as a single mother – two children, one who is at university and one at school.
I now feel, however that I must express my absolute disgust and anger regarding the increased level of crime and anti-social behaviour in an area which I once loved and which has now become a ‘no-go’ area.
At one time I would have relied on my elected representatives to do what they are elected and paid to do to bring the situation under some control.
We have had stabbings, murders, muggings, burglaries, racial intolerance, many types of anti-social behaviour and the only solution our local politicians can suggest is a French Market.
A few weeks ago I attended a Safer Neighbourhoods meeting where the issue of anti-social behaviour along Malden Road was raised by several people and yet the problems have escalated to the point where many of us are desperate and need the support of our local representatives to put party politics aside. The safety of all residents should not be a political issue, it is a basic human right.
Some of us are fighting day-in, day-out against a tide of apathy in the hope that we can get back the community that we all once loved.
YASMIN ALLEN
Malden Road, NW5
• I AM very worried that the Lib Dem-Tory council has lost all interest in Gospel Oak.
First they cut the council’s youth club in the ward then they put half of Malden Road pitches out of action all summer without even doing the necessary resurfacing work.
To add insult to injury, they have dug up Lismore Circus, made it into a building site and then abandoned it – no work has been carried out for weeks now.
The refurbishment of the Queen’s Crescent library has been put on ice to pay for clamping and on top of all this I hear they may close local pensioners’ luncheon clubs – because they are not modern enough.
Soon Gospel Oak will have almost no council-run facilities because they will all have been cut by the Lib Dem-Tory administration. And this at a time when there is unprecedented violence erupting in the area – with three stabbings and a murder in the last few months.
Are our local Tory councillors making a fuss about any of this? No. They are just standing by and letting it happen.
SALLY GIMSON
Chairwoman Gospel Oak Labour Party
Oak Village, NW5
• THE recent knife attack is only one of a series of extremely violent assaults – one ending up in a murder – which took place locally this summer (Where were cops? Ask traders after stabbing, September 21).
Yet Borough Commander Mark Heath keeps reassuring the public that Camden is now safer. Safer than what? Baghdad? What we need around here is proper policing to investigate the crimes, solve them, and hopefully restore faith in the law.
MRS S ROBINSON
Gilden Crescent, NW5 |
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