Entries tagged with “police” from Working For Walthamstow

I am supporting a new campaign to increase the numbers of police in Walthamstow. This has been triggered by a Met Police report that shows we have one officer for every 24.76 serious crimes against an average in London of one officer for every 20.12 serious crimes; to bring us up to the London average for the number of officers per serious crime we would need at least an additional 120 officers. As a consequence our borough police work hard to cover a range of difficult issues with limited resources; whether addressing gang crime in Walthamstow, drugs and firearm issues in Chingford or anti-social behaviour in Leytonstone our police force needs our support to get the officers it needs. That's why I'm joining with others including local councillors and Neil Gerrard in calling on the Met to give Walthamstow its fair share of police. If you want to support this campaign directly you can sign our petition here.

In recent weeks Walthamstow has been in the news for a spate of attacks against women, including the horrific murder of Michelle Samaraweera. In response to this, a group of local residents has organised a "reclaim the night" march. This is an event will involve giving advice and information on how to keep safe, and some time to remember the victims of these crimes. Whilst the ongoing investigations into these crimes is clearly the priority for police resources, I believe we also need stand together as local residents to show these events will not break the spirit of the local community. The march will start by the big screen in Walthamstow Town Centre at 9pm on Friday 10 July and finish near Kelmscott Leisure Centre on Queens Road. Representatives of the local police, Neil Gerrard MP and I will be speaking at this event so hope to see many other local residents there. 

I've recently dealt with a number of concerns raised by readers about dog fouling on local streets. Under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 it is an offence for owners to allow their dogs to foul on the public
highway or in other public places to which a Dog Control Order applies and carries a £75 fine. You can find out more about which areas are subject to a Dog Control Order (including our local parks) here. One of the difficulties in dealing with this is enforcement; put simply catching irresponsible dog owners in the act of failing to clean up after their animals. If this is something that concerns you, you can help by reporting back to police and council officers if you do see someone behaving in this way so they can monitor the situation. If you wish to know the
direct contact details for your local ward police team for non-emergency issues please get in touch.