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Housing patrol officers have come under fire from youths with stones on the Peckwater estate. |
ROCKS DRIVE PATROLS OFF NEW ESTATES
Council denies no-go area claims after gang attacks spread
HOUSING patrol officers were driven out of estates across the borough in a series of incidents involving stone-throwing youths. But Camden Council insists that they have not become “no-go areas”.
Five attacks on estates in Swiss Cottage, Kentish Town, Gospel Oak and Camden Town on Sunday and Monday this week followed attacks on police last week.
Members of the council’s housing patrol, which investigates minor criminal damage or nuisance, have now been attacked 11 times since the service was outsourced to private contractors in January.
A housing patrol member, who said he would lose his job with security company Broadlands Ltd if he was named, said: “We are being attacked. If the police can’t do anything about this, what can we do? We call the police, but the youths know we are calling the police and that makes it worse the next time. Somebody’s going to get really badly hurt.”
Staff believe that the decision to give them marked cars and uniforms “just to make a point” has made them “marked men”.
“These incidents can’t go on forever,” said a second patrol officer. “The council should commission an independent investigation into all of these attacks.”
At one point earlier this year, five of the 11 members of the housing patrol were off work with injuries
sustained in attacks.
The weekend’s incidents began with a housing patrol vehicle being stoned on Sunday night in the Peckwater estate, Kentish Town, where a police squad car was also damaged by stones last week.
The housing patrol was twice attacked with eggs in the Agar Grove estate, Camden Town, on Monday night, while across the borough, in Swiss Cottage’s Rowley Way estate, a housing patrol car had its window smashed.
The attacks on officials do not appear to be linked directly to any rise in crime on the affected estates. In fact, residents in most report that the summer has been quieter than previous years. Peckwater estate tenants representative Matthew Mordin said: “A lot of the children involved in this don’t come from the estate, though some of the younger kids are on the periphery. There are some really bad elements who come around but the community spirit on the estate is better than it has been for years.”
Housing and crime chief Councillor James King said yesterday (Wednesday) that the threat to housing staff was taken “extremely seriously”.
But he denied that the patrols had become ineffective in the face of sustained attacks.
“I completely reject the notion that we have estates that are no-go areas,” said Cllr King. “At a macro level, in terms of anti-social behaviour, we’ve not had a bad summer, though there are estates where we’ve had a greater frequency of incidents. [The stoning] is a worry and we need to investigate it.”
He admitted that the decision to put housing patrol officers in marked cars to send a message to tenants, who pay for the service, was under review.
But he dismissed suggestions that greater investment in youth activities might stem the unrest. “It continues to be the case that you’ve got a criminal incident that’s happening,” added Cllr King. “Saying you are bored is not an excuse for committing a criminal act.” |
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