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Let’s get police back on the beat
• CLAUDIA Webbe is quoted as blaming “cuts in youth services” by Islington’s Liberal Democrat council for the current epidemic of youth crime and disorder in our borough (Attack on youth worker cuts when 30 gangs are on streets, October 12).
What you do not say is that Ms Webbe is not an independent commentator, but an unsuccessful Labour council candidate who has her own political agenda.
In fact, Islington Council spends more per head on youth services, than most other boroughs, having many adventure playgrounds and after-school clubs.
Even the most right-on youth worker will not be on the streets at 1am when gangs are out racing their bikes or dealing drugs.
As a police advisor, Ms Webbe could make a start by enabling the police to spend less time filling in forms and more time out on the beat, day and night.
Islington has problems of overcrowded housing, family breakdown, lack of open space, drugs, alcohol-related violence and a growing gap between rich and poor. Unicef reports that British children are some of the most deprived in Europe, and the latest report on schoolchildren finds they are stressed and depressed by a dangerous, consumerist world.
These are big problems, requiring big solutions, not a cheap and inaccurate attack on the council. At a time when Martin Dinnegan’s family are appealling for politicians to sink their differences and work together, Ms Webbe’s partisan words hit a very sour note.
Hannah Mitchell
Gibson Square, N1
• ON October 2, the full council debated the important and most pressing issue facing our community – the safety of our young people and how, in the wake of the tragic death of Martin Dinnegan, we can play a part in combatting crime and gang culture.
This was an important debate attended by Martin Dinnegan’s father, who urged councillors to work together to help find solutions to the spiralling levels of gun and knife crimes and the deaths of so many young people across London.
Had Claudia Webbe, apparently a “senior advisor” to the Met Police, come along to the meeting, she would have heard how, in a well-informed debate, all councillors from all parties pledged support in the spirit of unity for the establishment of a commission to look closely at how we can play our part in combatting the crime and gun culture that has become all too common in our society.
Ms Webbe apparently blames the rise in these crimes on the “Thatcherite policies of the Liberal Democrat-run council”, citing the apparent cuts in youth workers.
Despite being told by Councillor Ursula Woolley that there have been no cuts in youth services, she prefers to propagate the lazy and easy option of blaming the council.
If Ms Webbe is a senior advisor to the Met then I as a parent am worried that she can trot out the usual party political statements that bear no semblance to reality.
While I am aware that Ms Webbe has for some time been seeking to find a parliamentary seat to stand for the Labour Party, it is cynical in the extreme to use this issue as a platform to try to get into Parliament.
Islington is one of the highest-spending councils on youth services in the country. There have been no cuts in the number of hours “detached” youth workers spend on the streets. In fact, there were more cuts to youth services under the Labour Party in Islington.
This is a national problem. In London alone about 21 teenagers have been murdered this year. They have been black, Asian and white. These crimes are a direct result of the rise of the gang and drug culture.
There have always been kids who go out of their way to cause trouble, but in the past they were not going out “tooled up” with knives and semi-automatic weapons. They carry these weapons to defend themselves or to attack others. Young people are joining gangs in order to give themselves some status and a sense of belonging.
Yes, young black people are disproportionately represented in the prison and youth justice system, and I agree with Ms Webbe that many grow up with little support and, I would add, positive male role models. There are some uncomfortable truths that all communities need to face up to: that raising children and young people needs time, effort and commitment. We need more imaginative national initiatives to crack this particular nut.
If, as Ms Webbe advocates, handing out more money to voluntary organisations to employ more youth workers is the solution, then she should ensure that she comes along and gives evidence to the commission as to how this will reduce street crime in Islington.
All agencies – police, councils, the government, youth agencies – agree there are no simple solutions. We all have to play our part in combatting youth crime, and that means tackling the root causes – poverty, poor educational achievement and unemployment. We must also support families and promote better parenting.
At a time when we’ve seen Gordon Brown stealing Conservative policies to cut taxes for the better-off, at the cost of decreasing child poverty, Ms Webbe needs to ask just which party is following “Thatcherite-style politics”.
Child poverty is actually increasing in London, where 41 per cent of children live in poverty. What a shameful record after 10 years of a Labour government: a lost generation of young people.
Cllr Meral Ece
Lib Dem, Mildmay
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