Crime, Herne Hill, Security, Traffic

Herne Hill Ward Safer Neighbourhood Panel Meeting, 23 March 2023

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This meeting was attended by representatives of the local police (only two, the others were off work for unstated reasons); two of the Herne Hill Ward councillors; a couple of representatives of local Herne Hill businesses and Traders Association; and people representing some (but not all) of the different areas/roads of Herne Hill.

Drugs, theft and ASB

The issue that took up most time was drug abuse and antisocial behaviour in and around Station Square, and the associated surge in shoplifting and aggressive begging. It was reported that some businesses had suffered costly opportunistic thefts. The two supermarkets were regularly raided by thieves who carried off bags of goods with total impunity. But even where a security guard was present, it was clear that they had orders not to endanger themselves by trying to physically prevent the shoplifters walking out with the goods.

Those who could observe this happening regularly, and who had learned to recognise the “usual suspects”, were convinced that the shoplifting was mainly designed, not to alleviate hunger or want, but to finance a drug habit. The police and the councillors were well aware of at least two local premises where addicts/thieves and petty dealers congregated to be supplied with and consume drugs. Raids had taken place, but the latest raid did not result in any prosecutions as no evidence could be found. This will be kept under observation and review: further raids might take place, depending on intelligence received.

The police said they were of course willing to attend the scene of any crime if someone called 999, but usually by the time they arrived the perpetrators had disappeared and proper evidence of a crime was often not available.

Beggars

Persistent begging was on the increase again, with most beggars claiming homelessness as the reason for asking for money. Again, police , traders and the councillors believed that most of the money obtained would be used for drugs. There was therefore talk of encouraging generous passers-by who wanted to help the homeless to donate to an independent homelessness charity rather than direct to the beggars; and there was discussion of having posters to this effect and even some sort of donation site. This will be followed up.

Meanwhile, some people said, the atmosphere around the centre of Herne Hill was more intimidating now, especially at night, than  in recent years. There have also been more muggings, often of young people, and committed by heavily disguised people of the same age.

Police presence on the streets

The small team charged with policing the Herne Hill Ward was not numerous enough (taking into account different shifts, holidays, illnesses and the need to be instantly mobile and on call for unforeseen events) to simply patrol the streets in the traditional way. Being in cars made them much more efficient.

This of course reflects the overall depletion of local police teams as a result of austerity budget cuts exacerbated by imperfect police command structures. See the separate note here about the Metropolitan Police and the Baroness Casey Review. This broader issue was not raised at the meeting, but most of us recognized that our conscientious and hard-working local police teams are dangerously over-stretched.

Speeding traffic, especially on Milkwood Road

I emphasised the concern of many residents about the ever present danger of traffic speeding along Milkwood Road and even veering to the wrong side of the central reservations. The fact that this road provided the main access for many people to neighbouring schools was an additional cause of anxiety.

Our councillors were well aware of this problem. There is no instant solution at present. Speed cameras can only be installed and monitored by the police, not by the local authority: and even then, the police will only do this when there have already been accidents and perhaps even fatalities. But there are other measures that can be developed. And Councillor Deepak Sardiwal has just followed up with a very helpful email which I have quoted in full below:

Dear Pat
Thank you very much for raising at the Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction Ward Safer Neighbourhood Panel meeting on Thursday the issue of speeding on Milkwood Rd on behalf of Fawnbrake Avenue residents.
Speeding is a criminal offence and all roads controlled by Lambeth council now have a 20mph speed limit, while TfL is rolling out 20mph on some of its roads in the borough. I am aware though of the need to reduce traffic speeds in specific parts of the ward including Milkwood Rd and tackling this issue is a major concern for residents.
As Fawnbrake residents probably know, speeding cannot be directly enforced by Local Authorities. The Council’s ‘enforcement’ takes the form of design measures e.g. traffic calming. In terms of Milkwood Rd, the council has installed a zebra crossing and speed humps to slow racing traffic. The humps are rather diminutive in nature due to the ambulance service on Milkwood Rd and regular speed humps which I would ideally like to see would slow the deployment of emergency vehicles.

Wandsworth trial

At the Panel meeting, the trial started last year by the London Borough of Wandsworth to enforce the speed limit on selected streets in Wandsworth came up. This is a novel interpretation of the legislation by Wandsworth: the relevant highways legislation explicitly precludes the use of permanent traffic orders for this purpose, but is silent on the use of experimental orders (ETO) and Wandsworth council have therefore decided to test this approach. An ETO can only run for a maximum of 18 months and in this case there is no legal mechanism to convert to a permanent traffic order so that the scheme can remain in place. I do therefore think that such initiatives are to be best viewed as a proof of concept / lobbying tool as part of wider discussions with Government on the devolution of powers.

However, as Cllr Dickson noted in the meeting, the Department for Transport has stopped the scheme despite Wandworth Council reporting that the proportion of speeding vehicles on the trial roads had reduced since the scheme was introduced. Further information on this here.

Lambeth council is preparing a new Road Danger Reduction Strategy. I am told this will include a review of the possible actions required to help achieve ‘Vision Zero’- the Mayor of London’s ambition to reduce road danger to the extent that no-one is killed or seriously injured on our roads. As part of this process, the council is reviewing locations where collision clusters have been recorded and where it has received feedback from the community in relation to road danger. I am seeking information about the proposed public consultation process for the Strategy and will ensure the details are shared as I receive them.

In the meantime, the Police have powers to enforce against drivers exceeding the speed limit, but finite resources to do so. I would like to see more frequent Community Road Watch operations in the hot spots in the ward of Milkwood Rd, Herne Hill Rd and Denmark Hill with resident participation including children (although the operations typically take place during school hours). The last operation was in March 2022. I also want to see the council continue to make robust representations to the Government for local authority enforcement of speeding offences. Finally, I do think speaking with local residents that further traffic calming solutions could be explored for Milkwood Rd, which I submitted to the council in December.

I hope this information is of some assistance. You would be welcome to share it with Fawnbrake Avenue residents you have been in touch with if that might be helpful – as I say I understand their concerns. Thank you again for raising this important issue.
Best wishes
Deepak

Dog nuisances

The forthcoming Public Spaces Protection Order was mentioned. See earlier post on this.

The next meeting of the panel is likely to be in June.

Brockwell Park, Our Street, Parks, Ruskin Park

New rules for dogs in Lambeth parks & public areas – consultations close tomorrow!

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Lambeth are planning to introduce a Dog Control Public Spaces Protection Order. A consultation is in progress but – apologies – I have only just heard about this and the consultation closes tomorrow, Sunday 26 March.

I guess this will be welcomed by most dog owners and park users who have seen that dog walkers often have too many dogs to care for and sometimes lose control.

There is also an explicit warning on dog fouling and penalties for owners who permit this.

The rules would extend to all public places in Lambeth including roads and pavements.

Four’s Your Max

One element of the PSPO proposal is that maximum number of dogs a person can be in charge of is four. An exemption will be in place to allow any official licensed commercial dog walks to continue walking up to six dogs.

In addition they propose that there should be no more than two dogs off their lead at any one time.

 

 

 

 

The consultation details are online, and there is a survey which residents are invited to complete.  If you agree, or want to suggest amendments, why not do do today?

As always, of course, the challenge will be enforcement.

Events, Herne Hill, News

Hollywood comes to Herne Hill

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Well-informed local friends report that on Monday 3rd April there will be a film crew filming in Herne Hill for a feature film called “We Live in Time”. In the morning they will be filming in Brockwell Park, and then at midday their attention turns to Station Square. Some parking bays will be suspended (but not all), and during takes the public will be prevented from walking / driving around for 3 minutes at a time.

There will be extras waiting nearby, and the two main actors are British / Hollywood stars (see below). Crew trucks will be parking on Dulwich Road. Most of the action takes place in Llewelyn’s and Lulu’s, then over by the Herne Hill sign under the bridge (good job that the Herne Hill Forum had it repainted), then by the station in the evening.

Andrew Garfield & Florence Pugh

Checking with film industry gossip, it seems that Academy Award nominees Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield are in negotiations to star in this production, described as a “funny, deeply moving and immersive love story.” John Crowley will  direct, with Nick Payne as scriptwriter:  StudioCanal developed the script.

 

 

General, Local artists, News

Printmakers closing down – and offer bargains

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A date for our diaries.

The professional artist printmakers who have been working at the Halfmoon Studio on the Bath Factory Estate, behind Norwood Road, have sadly decided to close down at the end of March. They are inviting people to visit and hunt for bargains in the final days before they leave.

The rising costs of rent, services and energy have made it uneconomic to keep going in their present premises. They aren’t the first, and won’t be the last to walk away from the arches, which for generations have provided unglamorous but functional and affordable accommodation for small businesses which often operate on narrow margins. A recent visit showed several repossession notices from landlords The Arch Company ( a joint venture between Telereal Trillium and Blackstone Property Partners), who bought the UK’s huge estate of railway arches from Network Rail in 2019.

Before working in the railway arches here, and even before that in an old bakery in West Dulwich, they had rented premises behind some shops on Half Moon Lane, hence the name of the business. Their studio houses the classic instruments of printmaking, chiefly the massively heavy etching presses.

One of the printmakers, Karen Keogh, is able to move to other premises in South London.

Susie Perring  will continue to operate from Artichoke Print Workshop in Loughborough Junction, and she can always be contacted via her website ,
by email  and by phone on  07817 762 780.

But the other artist, Sonia Rollo, is retiring from the business.

Susie and Sonia are holding a closing down sale in their studio with many bargains on offer.

Sale at the end of March

The studio will open for this sale on Monday 20 March to Sunday 26 March with many prints and etching ephemera at knockdown prices – a good opportunity to acquire some professional art for our walls. The Studio will be open from 11:30 am– 4:30 pm on those days.

To reach their Studio, you enter the Bath Factory Estate through the main gate on Norwood Road alongside the supermarket/Post Office, then head through the arch under the first railway line and walk about 100 yards to Arch 143.

Do not be dismayed by the squalid appearance of the estate: enjoy this new world!

 

Halfmoon Studio, Arch 143, Bath Factory Estate, via 41 Norwood Road, SE24 9AJ

On the way out you can perhaps sample some noodles!

Parks

The Future of Brockwell Hall Café – a Survey

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Recent years have seen announcements about the redevelopment of Brockwell Hall, and news of a Lottery Grant of £3.3 million towards the overall cost of the project, which would probably exceed £6 million.

Brockwell Hall

The plan is for Lambeth Council (who own the Hall) to fund the difference, with the Hall aiming to become commercially viable, if probably not fully self-sufficient. There is a full report in the excellent article by our neighbour Laurence Marsh in the centre pages of the most recent ‘Herne Hill’ magazine.

Most of the Hall at the moment is inaccessible to the public, but the cafe – modest though it is – is popular as a place of meeting and refreshment for park users. The future franchise for the operation of the cafe will probably be open to bidders, and one interested party has already started to canvass the park users’ views of what we would like the cafe to offer. We are grateful to our friends in the Brixton Forum for directing us to this survey. It is easy and quick to complete.

Take the survey

Undoubtedly many people on our street are users of the Brockwell Hall cafe and will have views about what a future replacement might look like. If you want to contribute to the survey, click here.

 

Our Street, Property, Security, Traffic

Safer Neighbourhood Panel

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The Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction Safer Neighbourhood Panel held its quarterly meeting on 6 December in the boardroom of King’s College Hospital. I attended on behalf of Fawnbrake and neighbouring streets; there were representatives from Coldharbour Lane, Rollscourt Avenue/Woodquest Avenue and Sunset Road. Councillor Dickson attended, as one of the councillors for the ward, as did Police Sergeant Obiola (our Ward Sergeant), Police Constables Keita and Paterson, and PCSO Mo, who has been a familiar face in the streets for several years often to be seen on his bicycle. The panel is chaired by John Frankland.

The police talked us through their crime reports for the three months August – September 2022. These are not deeply detailed, but show an increase (in October) of robbery (i.e. theft from persons or premises with the implicit or explicit threat of violence) often of mobile phones; theft, e.g. of bicycles and shoplifting; and a small increase in burglary.

Compared with the same period the previous year, the aggregate number of recorded incidents was down by two, but theft and robbery offences had risen. In current economic circumstances, these numbers can be expected to rise further. Drug offences were down but I suspect that this is because the police seem not to interfere with the very visible drug addicts such as we might see, for instance, around Herne Hill station and in Brixton, in instances where it isn’t obvious and provable that an offence is taken place. Where serious drug users (who are often troubled by mental illnesses as well) become a public nuisance, often the only remedy for the police is to arrest them and section them to a mental hospital, which will then release them after a day or so.

That said, the police did obtain a warrant for the search of a known drug distribution operation on Mayall Road, though on this occasion no evidence was collected. The house is reportedly very active again and it is possible that another raid could take place, as the neighbours and other residents are of course troubled and distressed by the presence of this activity on their doorstep. Bicycle theft does continue, and the police are very keen to advise bike owners to register their bikes with bikeregister.com  and immobilise.com.     In addition, the police managed to arrest and charge a male exposing in Ruskin Park; he was released on a bail condition not to be in the park.

A number of other issues were raised and discussed, not all of them matters for the police (so not mentioned here). Some people were worried about the rise of E-scooters being driven (usually illegally) at speed on roads and sometimes even on pavements – amounting in practice to antisocial behaviour. The police representatives sympathised but explained that a foot patrol or even a patrol in a police car could normally not physically stop and warn/arrest the scooter drivers: an operation involving several units would be needed and this seemed not to be very high priority – though some of us warned that if this phenomenon continued unabated, there would eventually be severe injuries or maybe even deaths of pedestrians or other road users. It is very much a London-wide or maybe even a national problem, exacerbated by the government’s ambiguous rules.

Another issue was organised night-time drug dealing on the corner of the Rollscourt Avenue and Kestrel Avenue, near the doctor’s surgery. This normally attracted some drug users on foot to be supplied from a car. There seemed to be no threat to other members of the public but it was disturbing to residents. The police said they would keep an eye on this.

I mentioned the phenomenon, familiar on our street, of parked cars being opened and disturbed overnight. The police thought that this was often conducted by drug users looking for small amounts of cash or something to sell. They offered no remedy except, obviously, to keep the cars locked and empty of stealable property.  Another issue was the regular sighting of discarded nitrous oxide gas cylinders, presumably left by abusers who seem to be graduating to much larger cylinders.

Traffic speeding generally was a concern, as in the past. The small team responsible for the Community Road Watch seemed to have been dispersed but needs to be reinstated. Mr Frankland will pursue this.

The next meeting will take place in March 2023.

Our Street, Parking, Traffic

Lambeth coyly reveals its policy on Electric Vehicle charging points

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Neighbours may remember our report in June about an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging point being installed, with no clear warning or explanation, outside a resident’s house. He protested – not at the concept of an EV charging point, which of course no-one could really object to, but at the lack of consultation, given that a crumpled laminated notice replete with official jargon hanging from the lamppost just like another appeal for lost cats, could scarcely be regarded as consultation.

In response a senior officer of the council – having in due course ordered the demarcation of a dedicated EV parking slot outside our neighbour’s house – has just sent him a lengthy statement which explains their approach.

 

 

 

 

 

This is an attempt to summarise and simplify what they are saying.

Free bonus

Any reader with a thirst for more information and a capacity for council jargon can spend a happy hour or so ploughing through a report and appendices buried deep on the Lambeth website.

Meanwhile, here goes…

1. Lambeth assume that the EV market and user demands will rise and that the council should therefore cater for existing and potential EV users. But preserving normal CPZ parking bays adjacent to a new charging point could create difficulties and conflicts, hence the need for dedicated areas. The council assume that internal combustion engine (ICE) users and non-recharging EV users should still be able to find a permit space elsewhere locally (noting correctly that residents have no automatic right to park at their preferred length of kerbside).

2. Lambeth aim to increase the number of lamp column charge points across the borough, and as the EV market develops the council will need to keep their policy under review in supporting the increased demand for recharging. They say that not every lamp column would automatically be appropriate for a charge point installation. But even if almost all suitable lamp columns were to be converted into a charge point, they say, there would still be the risk that ICE vehicles could obstruct access to EV users wishing to recharge their vehicles – hence the need to provide dedicated EV charging bays, barred to other vehicles including even EV cars when they are not being charged. (Comment: if, at some future point, all cars were electric, demand for charging points could not be met simply by converting lamp posts, of course. What then?)

3. Lambeth have a general target to achieve. Particularly in roads with minimal off-street parking, no EV vehicle owner should be further than five minutes away from a charge point. Once this aim is met, additional charge points (e.g. in this case) can be provided to cater for known demands. (Er, how do they assess demand?) They rather defensively pointed out that a notice was erected explaining their intention – but our neighbour’s robust response to this feeble excuse points out, as mentioned above, that while there is general public support for the electric charging policy, Lambeth’s failure to properly communicate their policies and decisions typifies, unfortunately, the council’s tendency to impose policies with negligible explanation: “a half decent consultation programme would have dissipated a lot of the current unhappiness”.

The big unknowns

No-one seems to know whether the take-up of electric cars will accelerate or stagnate. Obviously there is no exhaust pollution from EVs, which is a huge benefit. But there is ample doubt about the wider economic and environmental benefits and costs, when you take into account the need for much additional electricity generation (by what means?), the painful cost of securing the rare ingredients for the batteries, which in addition cannot be safely recycled when they expire; and the gigantic environmental and financial cost of disposing of perfectly efficient modern diesel and hybrid vehicles in order to comply with government targets.

So I suppose Lambeth can be forgiven, in this sense, for keeping options open and proceeding step-by-step.

They are still rubbish at communication though.

Herne Hill, News, Transport

We’re getting better connected tomorrow

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Herne Hill’s travel options into and around London are improving this weekend, with the joining up of the Elizabeth Line (formerly known as Crossrail), which we can of course access via Thameslink trains to Farringdon (except when Thameslink’s all too frequent weekend maintenance works rule this out, as on this Sunday).

This latest improvement means that from tomorrow, the lines from Reading, Heathrow, and Shenfield will connect with the central tunnels of the Elizabeth line – opening up new direct journeys across London, without having to change at Paddington.

In addition, customers will be able to use the Elizabeth Line seven days a week: Sunday services through central London will also start from tomorrow, Sunday 6 November.

 

Train frequency has improved too: between Paddington and Whitechapel, it goes from 12 trains per hour to up to 22 trains per hour in peak times and 16 trains per hour during off-peak. The final timetable, which will see 24 trains per hour during the peak between Paddington and Whitechapel, is on track to be in place by May 2023.

And there’s a new convenient interchange. Bond Street’s Elizabeth line station, which opened on 24 October, connects with the London Underground Bond Street station, accessing the Jubilee and Central lines. The new station is step-free from street to train with two lifts, further enhancing accessibility on the Elizabeth line and across the TfL network.

elizabeth-line-map-6-november-2022

Caution: There are some future planned engineering works when sections of the Elizabeth line will be closed:
Saturday 12 November – no service between Shenfield and Liverpool Street / Whitechapel
Saturday 19 November and Sunday 20 November – no service between Shenfield and Liverpool Street / Whitechapel, or between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow

Crime, Security

A stabbing in Josephine Avenue – and other crime news

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It’s just outside our area, but perhaps worth recording, before looking at the wider picture.

A recent report from the Metropolitan police states that they were called to Josephine Avenue, SW2, at 18.19hrs last Saturday, 20 August to reports of a group of males fighting:

“Officers attended along with paramedics from London Ambulance Service. A man in his 30s was found with stab wounds. He was treated at the scene before being taken to hospital.
A vehicle made off from the scene which failed to stop for the Police. The vehicle was stopped shortly afterwards by Firearms Officers in Coldharbour Lane, SW9. Four occupants were detained and Taser was used to detain one of them.
Two of the occupants of the vehicle were found to have minor stab wounds and were taken to hospital for treatment. All injured parties’ injuries have been confirmed as Non-Life threatening or changing.
A total of six arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing and being led by the local CID.
Anyone with information that may assist the investigation is asked to call 101 and quote CAD reference 6134 of 20th August 2022. Alternatively they can call Crime stoppers or contact www.fearless.org (which is linked to Crimestoppers).”

So this time, fortunately, no-one was killed. But in 2021, London recorded the highest number of teenage homicides caused by knife and gun crimes in modern times. That year, the UK’s capital saw the murders of some 30 male teenagers aged between 14 and 19. This surpassed the record of 29 in 2008.


What of Herne Hill?

Separately, and earlier this summer, we saw some crime figures for Herne Hill circulated by the police Safer Neighbourhood Team for our area (I now attend the panel meetings representing Fawnbrake Avenue). This data records the ‘Total Notifiable Offences’ for the last 11 months to April 2022.

The statistics showed a monthly average of 10 burglaries, four robberies, 32 thefts and 40 crimes against the person.

Still in Herne Hill, recorded possessions of weapons and drug offences were pretty low; in other wards the figures may well have been higher. I am not in a position to explain the difference between some of these categories: definitions of various crimes seem to vary. And it’s worth remembering that even these fairly crude figures can only represent the instances that the police were informed about.

The bigger picture – burglaries

Alongside all that, neighbours may have spotted reports in the national press earlier this summer about the astonishingly low clear-up rate for burglaries across the UK.

In neighbourhoods covering nearly half the country over the past three years, police have failed to solve a single burglary. Of more than 32,000 neighbourhoods analysed, 16,000 of them (46%) had all their burglary cases in the past three years closed with no suspect caught and charged by police.

Almost 2,000 of the neighbourhoods – each containing approximately 3,000 residents – recorded at least 25 burglaries, but none were solved. The worst neighbourhood, in Sheffield, went three years without any of its 104 burglaries being solved.

So for Lambeth?

The figures can be broken down by borough, and show that for Lambeth, 93.3% of burglaries were unsolved (data is for May 2019 to April 2022). The figure for robberies was 92.9% unsolved, and for bicycle thefts 98.3% unsolved. It doesn’t really help that, in the same statistics, Hackney comes out even worse.

So it seems clear that in most areas, burglary has not been regarded as a policing priority. Here in London, knife crime is probably – and understandably – a higher priority.

Yes, we might have expected the police to be able to respond to both types of incident. But on burglaries, some police forces have apparently introduced schemes to “screen” burglaries to decide if they are likely to be solved. If not, they are not fully investigated. These have ranged from the bizarre, where Leicestershire did not fully investigate break-ins at odd numbered houses to save money, to the more sophisticated in Norfolk, where Artificial Intelligence was used to assess the “solvability” of cases based on 29 factors, such as forensics, CCTV and location.

This seems to mean that if there is no CCTV or forensic evidence readily available, the case will often be closed within hours – leaving victims with no prospect of justice and little chance of recovering treasured personal items.

Conclusion

None of this is very reassuring. It’s probably stating the obvious to conclude that the safest lesson to draw from these figures is that we all need to take our own sensible, deliberate and consistent precautions to secure our persons, our families, our residences and our possessions. We can also look out for our neighbourhood and our street, as we on Fawnbrake already do – because, for whatever reason, the police may not be able to spring to help in an emergency when we send out the call.