Ashmore Park Police Liaison Committee

Last night I attended the Ashmore Park Police Liaison Committee at the Community Centre on Griffith Drive.

As usual it was a full house and the residents were keen to find out how the estate was fairing with regard to crime.

The police team explained that they were active on the estate and Coppice Farm which made up the beat.

They informed the meeting that two persons had been arrested for Criminal Damage in Barnard Road and are now in the process of receiving an ABC order.

Anti behaviour contracts (ABC) are voluntary agreements made between people involved in anti-social behaviour and the local police, the housing department, the registered social landlord, or the perpetrator's school.

They are flexible in terms of content and format. Initially introduced in the London Borough of Islington to deal with problems on estates being caused by young people aged between 10 and 17, they are now used with adults as well as young people, and in a wide variety of circumstances.

They have proved effective as a means of encouraging young adults, children, and importantly, parents to take responsibility for unacceptable behaviour. They are being used to improve the quality of life for local people by tackling behaviour such as harassment, graffiti, criminal damage and verbal abuse.

Residents were very interested in this issue as the problems that had manifested itself in Barnard Road were being closely followed. I recently had a visit to my surgery led by a resident approaching me with a complaint about his windows being stoned and broken as well as his neighbours.

Criminal Damage is the top crime being committed on Ashmore Park and Coppice Farm Estate in the period running September 06 to October 07. There had been 94 recorded incidents of criminal damage in the area. Hot spots continue to focus on Bucknall Road where again residents turned up to complain about the nuisance that they were suffering from youths who were damaging property and having late night drinking parties on the walkway that links the two estates.

I appealed to the police to do more and actually try hard to reduce these acts that have seen cars damaged and gardens violated. There is very much a case here for the mobile camera to be reintroduced and I shall be contacting the police later today to press that case. The good news that was given to the meeting was that crime was down by whopping 23% over the period September 06-October 07.

Now that is a statistic worthy of mention, and a good deal of that news is down to the two local beat Bobbies who are both enthusiastic and successful in working so hard on our behalf."