|
|
 |
| |
Kiln Place resident Jackie Draper |
PM GETS A GRILLING FROM GRAN
Brown confronted by terrorised woman on surprise visit
A GRANDMOTHER who was set on fire and threatened with knives during a three-year battle with anti-social behaviour tackled the Prime Minister when he made a secret visit to her estate on Tuesday.
Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Alan Johnson toured the Kiln Place estate in Gospel Oak unannounced to meet residents and highlight a pledge for a renewed crackdown on failed Asbos.
But Jackie Draper, 57, chairwoman of the Kiln Place Tenants’ Association, told her visitors how gangs gathering in her carefully tended garden had made life hell despite complaints to the authorities.
“They chased me with a knife, set me on fire, sabotaged my garden, threatened my granddaughter. They actually tried to set me on fire, because I’m not having it, not where I live. I came out there and confronted them with a baseball bat, and I told Gordon Brown about that,” she said.
Residents were sounded out about a “high-level visit” at the end of last week and only knew it was to be from the Prime Minister in the minutes before his cavalcade arrived.
Alongside Mr Brown and Mr Johnson was the government’s former “respect” czar Louise Casey.
“I am actually very grateful to Alan Johnson and Gordon Brown for at least coming and listening,” said Mrs Draper. “I hope they listen to what I said. I suffered three years of it, doing it the way it is supposed to be done, reporting things to the authorities, before anything was done. I am not a frightened person, but two or three years for someone who was more frightened than me – that’s not acceptable.”
Residents said conditions in Kiln Place, a 1960s estate next to Gospel Oak railway station, had improved in recent months, and Mrs Draper praised the work of Gospel Oak’s Safer Neighbourhoods police team.
“I’ve got to be fair, they kept on giving me a knock to see that I was all right,” she said. “But the truth is that they don’t have the resources to be here as much as they should be. And I told Alan Johnson that.”
As recently as June, two officials from the council’s housing patrol were seriously injured when they were stoned and beaten by a gang of 14 in Kiln Place.
Since then the council has threatened to evict three “problem families” and the police have spoken to the parents of 60 youths.
Mr Brown said the estate had “made significant progress in tackling anti-social behaviour”. He added: “We have seen what can be achieved when people come together to confront anti-social behaviour and sort out their problems. And we have been talking about additional support we are now going to give communities like theirs – new ways to ensure communities have a proper voice on Asbos in the justice system, extra support to victims of anti-social behaviour, and extra powers for the police and courts to deal with people who breach Asbos.”
The council’s Liberal Democrat community safety chief, Councillor James King, said the ministerial visit was “positive for Camden”. But he denied that the Lib Dems, once critical of Ms Casey’s championing of anti-social behaviour legislation, had fallen in line with her “respect agenda” despite Camden’s continuing record of issuing more behaviour orders than any other Town Hall.
“I believe that we should use enforcement tools alongside inclusion measures. We do use Asbos. We do use ABAs [Acceptable Behaviour Agreements], but I’m not using the respect agenda,” he said. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
