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Blunder lets a phone box back on High St
Police bid to get rid of ‘drug dealers’ offices’ frustrated
BUNGLING planning chiefs have mistakenly allowed a phone box to be placed in Camden High Street, even though the council has spent years trying to get rid of them.
And now, amid police fears that it could hamper their efforts to cut crime in the area by providing shelter to drug dealers and obscuring CCTV coverage, the Town Hall has been forced to admit it is virtually powerless to do anything about it.
Officials were caught napping when two companies filed a series of requests for new kiosks in Camden. Most were turned down but the council missed a deadline to appeal against a new phone box on the corner of Inverness Street and Camden High Street.
The blunder – described as “very regrettable” by the council – comes after businesses in the area chipped into a fund aimed at de-cluttering Camden Town and widening pavements. Phone boxes in Camden Town have come to be regarded by some police officers as street shorthand for drug dealers’ offices. The report said police had worked hard to clear the street of the kiosks.
Several abandoned phone boxes were removed in a council drive to make the streets feel safer.
And when the idea of new ones was suggested to the council earlier this year, the Met made it clear that they did not want any more, warning how they became magnets for drug users, advertisements for prostitutes, vandals and people using them as makeshift toilets late at night.
Conservative environment chief Councillor Chris Knight admitted on Monday night that the council had not issued a “refusal notice” to operators Infocus within a 56-day deadline to respond.
“This is due to the application not being dealt with correctly when it was first received,” said Cllr Knight, who believes the unmissable banner advertising on the side of the box will prove profitable for the company.
He said legal advice had been taken but the council’s hands were tied and that he was relying on “goodwill” to get the box relocated. Cllr Knight added: “New processes have been put in place to ensure that this kind of very regrettable error can be avoided in future.”
He was responding to questioning by Labour ward councillor Pat Callaghan, who suggested the phone that had been installed did not even work.
She said: “The placing of the phone booth obstructs CCTV looking down the street towards Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Lock.” |
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