Street Drinking on the Rise

Back in July I wrote about the plans for a street drinking ban in Southwark. At the time I said that it wasn't a problem in my ward, but that unlike the Dulwich Tories I didn't want Nunhead excluded in case it became a problem.

Well, I'm very glad I did that now. Since July dealing with nuisance street drinkers has become one of the top priorities for our local Safer Neighbourhood Police Team. Particular problems are around two supported housing units, one on Kirkwood Rd and the other near Queens Road Station. The housing is meant to be for people who have recovered from alcohol/drug addiction problems and are housed in these units temporarily whilst they look for long term accomadation. These haven't been a major problem in the past but since this summer I've had loads of complaints about men hanging around drinking on the streets outside the units and harrassing passers-by.

Obviously alcohol abuse is a complex problem and the new street drinking ban is not going to solve the problem on it's own, but it does give the police extra powers to simply confiscate and pour away alcohol if they find people who are drinking on the street and the police think are likely to cause a nuisance. Our police team seem pretty pleased with this as it's a simple and straight forward measure.

My only real disappointment with the measure is that the local council wardens aren't going to be allowed to use it. Apparently the council has a new roving team of 8 super council wardens who will be able to confiscate alcohol, but they have to cover the whole borough. I don't know why the council doesn't empower all the wardens and it does make me think that Lambeth Council's new Labour administration may be right to be thinking of replacing their wardens with extra PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers) - the PCSOs have similar and sometimes more powers than the wardens, they work as part of the police team so there is no extra layer of management costs and I think as they look almost exactly like police officers having them patrolling the streets would be much more effective for reducing crime.

Anyway, back to the street drinking. Following a period where all the agencies (police, wardens, housing department) were aware of the problem but all working seperately on it, I've now got them to hold some joint meetings with the company that manages the housing units and the team in the council that pays for the unit and assigns people to live there. I'm not sure yet whether the underlying problem is poor management at the unit or the council placing people there who need more support than the unit is able to give, but I hope a combination of enforcement by the police and the project team looking at the underlying issues will mean we don't see such major problems next summer.

By the way, one of the innovations with the new Safer Neighbourhood Police Teams is that we have regular meetings with the police team, councillors and residents to discuss what the local crime and anti-social behaviour problems are and to agree priorities for the team for the next month. So if there are problems in your area please do let me know and I'll make sure the police know about them.

Traffic enforcement in Nunhead

Monitoring traffic speeds on Ivydale Road, Nunhead
Originally uploaded by Fiona Colley.

I've had quite a few complaints about speeding traffic in Nunhead, especially on Ivydale Road.

I've been taking these up with the council officers and the new Road Safety Officer included Ivydale Road in an enforcement and education exercise and invited me to come along.

We took up station near Ivydale Primary School and started measuring speeds. In wasn't a very busy time of day, but a lot of cars were doing 25 - 30mph - in a 20mph zone!

Of course the police can't be there all the time and unfortunately it's pretty much impossible to get a speed camera unless there have been lots of accidents. So what we need to do is see if we can get some more effective traffic calming measures - certainly we need more signage of the 20mph zone and perhaps a speed activated sign.

Council Assembly 4 - Alcohol Control Zone

At Council Assembly we decided to designate the majority of the borough as an Alcohol Control Zone.

The designation gives police additional powers to crack down on street drinkers who are causing a nuisence.

It's not about stopping people from having a picnic in the park - it's about getting rid of groups of drunks who persistenting hang around drinking cans of Special Brew in places like Camberwell Green and on Coldharbour Lane. It's a really big problem in Camberwell. People get harrassed by drunks at all times of the day and they make the park at Camberwell Green almost unusable.

The Labour councillors in Camberwell have been campaigning for a full street drinking ban for SE5 . For some reason the LibDems rejected this idea and instead decided they wanted a borough-wide control zone. I know the Camberwell councillors and residents are concerned that this will dilute the policing of the zone in Camberwell, but it's better than nothing so we voted in favour of it.*

From a Nunhead perspective, as far as I'm aware street drinkers are not really a problem. However, we were warned that if we weren't in the zone then we might find that drinkers moved from the current hotspots into areas that weren't covered, so better to be in than out.

One thing that did concern me was the council's plan to put up 500 full colour foamex signs around the borough. I think we can do without a load more plastic signs around Nunhead, particularly if they are in the nasty shade of orange the council's marketing people have decided to allocate to the area.

So my contribution to the debate was to inform the Executive Member for Community Safety that whilst I was happy for Nunhead to be included in the zone, as we don't have a problem at the moment we really don't need any ugly orange signs.

He seemed to take my point, but I'll be keeping an eye out. Please let me know if you spot any.


* NB As well as the street drinking ban, the Camberwell councillors are also campaigning for more and better support services for the drinkers and controls on the sale of strong alcohol in the area.

Rave behind Queens Road Station (and the power of the press)

I had a number of complaints last week about an extremely noisy party that was held near the railway arches behind Queens Road Station. Residents from the far end of Astbury Road were kept awake till 3am on the Sunday night.

One thing that particularly upset residents was how slow the council and police were to close the party down. One resident called at 1am and was told that the council was already aware of the situation - yet it still took another 90mins before the authorities went in.

I (and others) spent a lot of time last week complaining to the council's licensing team - trying to get some reassurance that they had identified who was holding the parties and that they were making sure that it wouldn't happen again.

We weren't getting much in the way of answers, so on Friday I called in the South London Press. Shortly after the journalist called the press desk I got an email from the head of licensing to tell me that they'd be patrolling the area alongside the police and the community wardens! Call me a cynic, but I don't think this was a coincidence.

The good news is that there was no disturbance this weekend.

So thank you to the SLP, read their report here.

Police Safer Neighbourhood Team Launch

Today sees the launch of the new Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams across Southwark. These are teams of beat officers who are dedicated to a fixed area. They will walk the beat and work with local residents and businesses to get to know the local policing priorities. Each team has a mobile phone number which you can ring and get through to an officer whenever they are on duty. Obviously, use 999 for emergencies, but if there is an ongoing crime problem you want to report (for instance an alleyway being used for drug dealing) then give them a call.

The teams work on the council electoral ward boundaries. Here's a map of the boundaries for Nunhead and Peckham.



And here are the details for the 4 teams covering the area.

14 Peckham Ward
07766 474477
peckham.snt@met.police.uk



16 The Lane Ward
07766 442999
thelane.snt@met.police.uk



17 Nunhead Ward
07920 233914
nunhead.snt@met.police.uk



20 Peckham Rye Ward
07920 233915
peckhamrye.snt@met.police.uk



If you live somewhere else in London you can find your local team's details on the Met Police website.

Mini-motorbike menance

Buchan Road Mini Moto
Originally uploaded by Fiona Colley.

This little tyke was haring up and down Buchan Road today, sometimes on the pavement.

Mini-motorbikes are becoming a big issue in Nunhead. They are very popular with teenage boys (and sometime even younger kids) and are available for as little as £150. This rider was more safety conscious than most - he was wearing a helmet.

They make a terrible racket and are often driven dangerously on pavements, footpaths or parks. It drives people mad when they are trying to have a quiet night in and one of these keeps buzzing past. There have also been a number of accidents where the rider and pedestrians have been hurt due to the dangerous driving.

It is actually illegal for them to be ridden anywhere except private property with the permission of the landowner, but it's very difficult for the police to catch them as they can easily speed away.

However, the new Safer Neighbourhood Police teams seem to be having some success. These are teams of six police officers who walk the beat of a small neighbourhood. They really get to know the area and community well, which means they can police it proactively rather than just respond to 999 calls.

The team in Surrey Docks has been going for a couple of years and has managed to confiscate quite a number. The only way to catch the riders is for the police to be on the spot and to already know where the kids live. Hopefully the new Nunhead Safer Neighbourhood Team which has just started will be able to replicate this success. I called the team to let them know about this rider and will be emailing them my picture.