Camden New Journal - News: We need fences and gates to bar gangs, estate pleads

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Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 8 November 2007

We need fences and gates to bar gangs, estate pleads

THE only way to end gangs’ reign of terror on a Kentish Town estate is to put up fences and gates, intimidated residents said on Thursday.
A community forum agreed that heavy railings and access gates to cut off the network of rat-runs and escape routes have become a necessity at the Denton estate.
Residents dismissed fears that estate fences created “ghettoes” as an irrelevance in the face of continuous violence and the apparent impotence of the police.
Some present at the forum, held at the Salvation Army centre in Chalk Farm Road, asked the New Journal not to print their names, claiming that gangs had broken the windows of those who spoke out against them in the past.
Talacre Gardens resident Peter Cuming said: “Gated communities are our only hope if we don’t have policing. The Denton problem is ruining people’s lives, destroying people’s businesses. You now have to plan your life around these problems.”
A long-standing Denton resident who asked for anonymity said: “To be told there’s not enough money for a gate when there is a massive effort going into fighting car crime is an insult.
“What about me, my family, other residents, we’re the ones who need protecting – not a few cars.”
Another resident said: “Everybody now wants the gating. Whenever the police arrive you just see these kids diving through the entrances where they can’t follow them. It would stop people from outside coming here but it would mainly stop them using it as a rat-run.”
Lib Dem councillor Jill Fraser, who chaired the Haverstock Local Area Forum, said community concern could reverse previous council policy on “gating” Denton and side streets leading off Malden Road, which have been recognised by police as a magnet for anti-social behaviour for three years.
She said: “I always believed from the beginning that we shouldn’t have people in a prison, basically gated off or behind a fence, but over time I have changed my mind.”

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