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Scruffy Soho needs to clean up its act to win the war on crime
Residents’ association calls for more money, and more action from council
SCRUFFY streets in Soho are becoming a magnet for crime and are hampering attempts to rid the area of its drug problem, council chiefs have claimed.
Members of the Community Safety Policy and Scrutiny Committee joined forces with neighbourhood group the Soho Society to call for investment in street improvements.
Committee chairwoman Councillor Audrey Lewis said there was a danger that hard-fought battles made by the police against drug dealers and “undesirables” could be lost unless the impression of neglect was reversed.
The warning comes in the same week the borough was reported as having the highest rates of alcohol-fuelled crime in the country, with 18 offences committed for every 1,000 people.
Councillor Lewis said: “There is no doubt that the recent crackdown on crime and antisocial behaviour in Soho is beginning to work, with more police officers around on weekends, improved street lighting and fewer people concerned about drugs problems.
“But without serious investment to some of Soho’s poorest streets, we worry these efforts will be hampered by an impression of neglect that could attract more undesirables.”
In April, the council and police launched a crackdown in Soho to try and make the area more “family friendly”.
Among the measures introduced were improved street lighting in Archers Street, Greens Court, Diadem Court and Denman Street, as well as a cull of nine public phone boxes that had been overrun by prostitutes and drug-dealers.
Most controversially the council and police have been conducting a much-trumpeted war on vice, which some residents in Soho have objected to for eroding the area’s time-honoured identity.
Sex workers in many of the area’s walk-up flats, told the West End Extra, that a series of raids back in August were motivated by a drive to kick them out of the area.
Police say the number of calls fielded about drug-related activity in Soho has fallen by a staggering 44 per cent over the past year. But reports of progress haven’t convinced all residents.
David Bieda, chairman of the Dean Street Residents Association said the council had not been tough enough on Thames Water, who have been digging up many of the areas streets as part of its major maintenance works.
He said: “I was impressed by the level of questioning by some councillors but I can’t see how the dynamics of the area can be changed without a major infrastructure programme and the reinstatement of the £2.5million lopped off the Soho Action plan budget. As for changing Soho’s image and making it more ‘family friendly’, perhaps Westminster can start by dispersing the sex shops, all of
which have been dumped in Soho, stop granting any more liquor licenses and deal with the extraordinary noise levels in Old Compton Street.”
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