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Camden News - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 26 March 2009

Youths launch stone attack on housing patrol

Second ambush within two weeks

A HAIL of stones greeted a patrol of police and housing officers as they walked around a Gospel Oak estate.
A 21-year-old housing officer was the second in a fortnight to be injured by stones thrown in the area of Barrington Court, a 10-storey 1960s block in the centre of the network of estates around Lismore Circus.
The attack last Tuesday came in the same week the Town Hall admitted the area is the most underfunded in terms of youth services in the borough. Youth clubs have seen less money being put in over the past two years.
Camden’s Children’s Services director Andy Knowles briefed councillors on Tuesday night on a report which showed Gospel Oak had the greatest need but the least provision of any area of Camden.
He said: “We definitely have to work on provision in the Gospel Oak area. The way forward, we hope, for Gospel Oak will be through the area [funding] review.”
Labour councillor Geethika Jayatilaka said: “Everybody is agreeing that there needs to be more money – if we all know it is needed, what are we waiting for?”
Police are seeking a group of nine teenagers in connection with the stoning and the council has imposed a “double up” rule on housing patrols visiting the estate.
Police said 24 young people had been stopped and spoken to by the patrol, and a bicycle and some cigarettes had been seized between 7pm and 10pm last Tuesday.
Clods of mud and gravel still littered the paths and pavements around Barrington Court a week after the attack.
A Town Hall press official said: “The council and its partners take the health and safety of staff very seriously and in particular in the light of the recent incidents.”
She added: “There will be a policy of patrols ‘doubling up’ at Barrington Court in the immediate future.
“This will mean at least four officers going to the location either in response to calls from the public or as part of pro-active patrolling of the area.”

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