Camden New Journal - News: Mayor's Outburst

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Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 19 April 2007

Cllr Jill Fraser

Mayor’s outburst: We’re at the mercy of gangs

We call 999 but no one responds, she says at launch of strategy

POLICE and the council are ignoring the plight of residents besieged by gangs, the council’s Mayor told her own administration’s crime tsar on Thursday.
In an extraordinary outburst during the presentation of the council’s action plan for dealing with anti-social behaviour (ASB) by her party colleague Councillor Ben Rawlings, the Lib Dem Mayor Cllr Jill Fraser said: “I’m not talking as the mayor or as a councillor but with my resident’s hat on now. Where I live these people are terribly anti-social every night and residents are calling all the numbers and they’re not getting any response.
“These are kids doing extremely dangerous activities, 16 or 20 of them at a time – and they call 999 and they’re not getting any action.
“They’re in the same place every night – it is not as if they are hard to track down. 999 do not respond when I phone them – and will not turn out.
“We call all of the numbers for the council or the police and no-one comes out. I’m happy for the future (of the action plan) – but what about now?”
The comments from the council’s figurehead echoed those from another former councillor and former mayor, Barbara Hughes, who earlier this month accused police of failing residents in Camden’s poorest wards while the richest areas get “reassurance patrols”.
Describing massive youth disorder and intimidation in Somers Town, Ms Hughes said: “I am very unhappy with the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams in Somers Town. We have been tormented with young people coming from another area. I mean I’m out there – me – at nine, 10, 11 at night, because there’s no-one there.”
Cllr Fraser’s remarks – supported by fellow members of the Housing and Adult Social Care Committee – appeared to wrong-foot Cllr Rawlings as he launched the council’s 50-point action plan.
Beset by criticism from the opposition Labour group that his department’s nine-month review of ASB had led to a loss of impetus, he said tackling drugs culture in Camden Town would bring about long-term improvement but inevitably cause temporary ‘displacement’ of thuggery.
He said: “Camden Town is a blight on the borough. It is right to break the back of the cannabis market in Camden Town – but dealing with displacement is vital.”
It was left to ex-police commander Tony Brooks, now chief of the council’s community safety efforts, to defend the council and police response to emergency calls.
Pledging to bring statistics on response times to a future meeting, he said: “I’d like to think that wasn’t a constant issue across the borough at all times.”
The ASB action plan will be presented to the council’s executive for approval in May.

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