Category: Policing

The ECPCG will be having its AGM tonight. This may sound a bit dry but if you want to meet the Borough Commander and see her in action this is a good opportunity. She will be presenting her annual report and talking about knife crime. Collette Paul is quite an impressive lady so it would be well worth a trip to the Town Hall if you are interested in Ealing policing issues.

Go to the Queen’s Hall at 7.30pm. They are serving tea and coffee from 7pm so go early and harangue a few councillors while you are there.

Follow this link to see crime figures for the borough and whole Met broken down by type of crime.

The Ealing Fields Residents Association met at the Log Cabin last night to have their AGM. The EFRA area (see map) includes about a third of the Northfield ward. It was a well attended meeting with some 50 people squeezing into the Log Cabin behind Northfield Library.

Two councillors, Millican and myself, turned up along with Sergeant Elam, the SNT Sergeant for Northfield.

EFRA’s membership secretary reported that they had some 450 memberships out of some 1,840 residences in their area.

Elam reported that in the last year his team has arrested 14 graffiti vandals. He also pointed out that Northfield is the safest ward in Ealing by a country mile. The Northfield team, along with the Ealing Common team, will move into a ward base at the old Bullseye shop at 180 South Ealing Road in August. This will be a great advance as it will move a visible police presence to where it is needed. There will be a counter there so people will be able to meet their local coppers face-to-face. Apparently Elam’s team run a surgery at the Starlight Cafe, Northfield Avenue every Tuesday from 3pm to 4pm if anyone wants to catch them in the meantime. If you have problems call Sergeant Elam and his team on 07879 888989. They are very nice so don’t be shy.

I was asked to give a short report on the Little Ealing Showcase Streets scheme. I did a quick tour of the neighbourhood before the meeting to check my facts. The scheme does seem to have uplifted Little Ealing Lane and the adjoining streets.

Having been to three well attended, well run public meetings over the last month, Old Hanwell Residents’ Association one-way system meeting, West Ealing Neighbours development meeting and this one, I am impressed by how active and engaged our citizens are. It is a shame we can’t get them to come to more of the council’s meetings.

Today the council has announced that an additional 50 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) will be hired in Ealing subject to an agreement between Ealing Council and the Metropolitan Police Service being finalised, see press release.

Apparently, the council is finalising the details of a £2 million investment programme over two years to fund the extra PCSOs. The 50 officers will start work across the borough from May.

Council Leader Jason Stacey says:

This is a ground-breaking new initiative for Ealing as funding for the new PCSOs is coming from the council. It will be a significant boost to the resources that go into reducing crime and tackling anti-social behaviour and envirocrime. This will help us deliver one of our key priorities which is safer communities.

Last night we had the 3rd Safer Neighbourhood Team focus meeting. Sgt Elam was there along with his PC, Stuart Hedley. There were 6 reps from residents and traders associations plus Ricky Wright, our envirocrime enforcement officer and Cllr Millican and myself.

The team of four promised by the Mayor by the end of April (see his press release) finally materialised at the end of November. Only 7 months late. Such are pre-election promises.

The good news is that a third PCSO is due to start today and another PC in January to bring us up to the full SNT team strength of 6 (1 sergeant, 2 PCs and 3 PCSOs).

The accommodation issue is not yet settled. The latest plan is a shared shop unit on South Ealing Road with the Ealing Common team. Sounds good to me.

We spent most of our time examining the three priorities set by the focus meeting.

Drugs

At the last meeting we set reducing the levels of drug activity as the first priority. Although there are 3 potential hot spots in the area the team have only found one person in possession since they started operating in April. They make about 30 stops per week so after stopping almost 1,000 people they have found 1 person. The police officers thought that the problem may be more one of perception than reality.

Vehicle crime

Motor vehicle crime is the biggest single category of crime in the ward. In Q2 there were 61 incidents, it went down to 35 in Q3 and back up to 48 in Q4. There is quite a mix with everything from key scratching to satnav thefts. There is a particular problem with one individual slashing car tyres. It is perhaps more prevalent in the south of the ward where it neighbours Brentford. Most victims are residents. The Police are actively educating owners to try to reduce the incidence of this crime. The team have not nabbed any villains for car crime.

Graffiti

Since the team started eight young offenders have been caught. Most have been let off with a caution as this is the first time they have come to the attention of the Police. One individual should be getting an ASBO on Thursday. There was general agreement that the new graffiti service combined with an effective envirocrime protection officer, Ricky, and this effective police work was having a marked effect on graffiti in the area.

CCTV

Linda Massey, from Boston Manor Residents Association, has been championing a new style of cheap CCTV system and has been working with the shops in Boston Manor Parade. This was of great interest to the Northfield Traders rep where they are having a problem with vandals scratching glass.

Burglaries

There was a big growth in burglaries in the last quarter to 24. More worrying there were 14 incidents in the last two weeks. Sneak thieves talking their way into the homes of the elderly are included in this category. Luckily there has been no violence but everyone is warned to check the id of callers. Apparently there is a pair of women going around claiming to be from Age Concern. If you are vulnerable trust no-one.

Priorities

We had a conversation about resetting priorities. The number one priority should be burglary, followed by motor vehicle crime, followed by more general criminal damage including graffiti.

The next meeting is provisionally scheduled for 7.30pm at room upstairs at the Harvester on Boston Manor Road on 13th February.

Call Sgt Elam on 07879 888989 if you have any local crime issues or if you would like to attend the next focus meeting.

Last night saw the Ealing Area Committee move into the council chamber. We had another full agenda with a talk from the Borough Commander followed by seven further items. The meeting was chaired to good effect by Councillor Millican so we got out by 9.30pm which was something of a triumph. Contributions from the public were numerous and useful but mercifully short so nobody won the windbag of the evening award, not even the inestimable Arthur Breens.

Under the public forum heading we discussed the issue of how the street lighting PFI is putting utilitarian “hockey stick” lamp posts into many areas that don’t want them. Keith Townsend, the Executive Director for Customer Services, reported that it would cost £2.4 million to put heritage style lamp posts in everywhere. The old Labour administration decided to cut corners in this area and it is hard to see where this money would come from if the new administration was going to change course on this.

Commander Paul introduced Ian Daniels, who is the Area Inspector for Ealing, and also in charge of licensing. The Safer Neighbourhood Teams report to Ian. The six SNT sergeants also stood up and introduced themselves. Paul reported that we are on track to get teams of at least six by the end of December in Ealing. An extra 18 PCSOs are due next May/June to tackle transport problems. In addition three wards with populations over 14,000 will get an extra 3 PCSOs each next June, Cleveland, Hangar Hill and East Acton.

She reported that overall crime was down 17% in Northfield. 6 graffiti vandals have been dealt with and 50 foreign registered cars taken off the streets.

Paul clarified the position with Ealing Police Station. She is looking for premises near the Town Hall with a bigger and better front office. This does not change the fact that Ealing Police Station will not be the home of response teams – they will be based in Southall and Acton as they have been since December.

The Commander made a badly judged crack about commuter parking in Ealing: “This borough is a car park”. She feels that car crime would be reduced if there were more CPZs and hence less commuter parking. Most people in the borough don’t want CPZs and it is easy to ridicule this statement by suggesting that we ban cars altogether to eliminate car crime completely. It is the job of the police to catch criminals not to tell us how to live our lives.

The bulk of the meeting covered various local schemes in the Ealing area. Due to the ridiculous rules around conflicts of interest councillors had to keep leaving when wards where they lived were discussed. It might be reasonable to deny councillors the right to speak on issues effecting their homes but to send them out of the room so that they cannot hear the debate is a joke. Thank you Standards Board for England.

The item that took up the most time was the Mattock Lane CPZ. As I live in the area I had to leave the room and cannot tell you what happened!