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We need to get tough with the dealers and their dogs
• NOW that summer is on its way, I would like to make an urgent plea to all council tenants and tenant associations to demand that Camden simply put a ban on dog-owning in council flats for everyone other than the over-60s – and for them that just one small dog be allowed.
During this beautiful weekend I tried to use our reasonably pleasant courtyard and a fenced-off, nice, grassy area to sit in the sun also with my grandchildren playing nearby. This pleasure was – as is now usual – ruined by just four single, youngish (drug dealers in fact) dog owners who have been moved onto our estate during the last two years.
These young men own typical dealer Staff terrier-type dogs and refuse to keep them on a lead. They also refuse to clear up the mess which is everywhere on our grass and in the courtyards. The caretaker says it is not his job to clear it.
I have reported all this to the housing department who seem reluctant to take any real action against these guys.
For more than a year I have kept a diary on the drug dealing activities, which are blatant; and on the dog nuisance.
I believe these guys have received visits and warning letters which are all ignored. These tenants are in breach of their tenancy agreements but clearly the housing department cannot manage the situation. Hence the obvious need for a ban on dog owning – not least for the reason that it is cruel to keep dogs in these small flats.
These guys have permission to own two dogs, should they wish, which is ridiculous when other landlords of flats ban dog-owning outright.
On drug dealing, the dealers in our flats seem able to live a carefree life in their free flats all paid for courtesy of the hard-pressed taxpayer.
That they are dealers is obvious since the clothes they wear are designer (they are not dressed from the high street) one can tell. These guys do not work for a living. I have witnessed the counting out of £50 notes at the entrance to our block, the dealers paying me no attention. They are not afraid of being caught. With drug mark-up being anything up to 1,000 per cent the incentive is high?
Yet despite diary keeping at the request of the council for almost two years – and despite some contact with the so-called neighbourhood police team, who stopped communicating with me by email which was the only way I could find them – nothing has happened to upset their activities.
Because of all this lack of action from council and police our community cannot function.
No tenants except these guys use our gardens. There are families here who do not allow their children to play outside because of the dog issues particularly.
I feel that I am being driven into finding an exchange to somewhere more amenable and peaceful, which I don’t really want to do as I have lived here happily, until recently, for almost 20 years .
Name and address supplied
Keep them on a lead
• DOGS that are not on a lead should be banned from public spaces on council estates.
On Friday, one of three dogs on the loose in the space between Waxham and Ludham blocks in Gospel Oak, killed a cat.
Its owners just walked on and did nothing to report it or attend to the cat.
I am an animal lover, but owners here and elsewhere in the borough are letting their dogs run out of control.
The area where the cat was killed is an area that is used by children and families and they are entitled to use it without having to be on guard against uncontrolled dogs. Yet owners are now regularly using the space for exercising their dogs. Hampstead Heath is just five minutes walk away.
Dog owners should be forced to keep their pets on a leash until they reach the Heath.
Name and address supplied
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