Lambeth Labour votes against funding for Safer Streets unit

11.10.39pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 22nd Sep 2005

In March 2005, the Home Office cut the Metropolitan Police's funding for the reduction of street crime. This has meant the Safer Streets Unit based in Cavendish Road police station was disbanded on 31 March 2005, with the loss to the borough of an inspector, four sergeants and 36 police officers who had contributed to Lambeth's continued fall in street crime. In July 2005

Lambeth Labour voted against reinstating funding for this unit.

The number of police officers on the streets of Lambeth matters to all residents, and it is vital to have open discussions of what those levels are, especially when they come from Labour Government cuts rather than operational decisions by the police.

Labour's past record on community safety in Lambeth is shocking: their Labour council administration (which in 1998 pledged it would "back up the police with CCTV cameras.") chose to allocate only six months' worth of funding for the borough's CCTV operation for the entire 2002-03 financial year!

Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, have worked to get Lambeth:

*to appoint its first Head of Community Safety;

*to recruit a street warden/CCTV performance manager, to work with the police,

*to adopt an Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy;

*to establish a Crack House Protocol with the police, and participating in a joint campaign which has seen the 80+ crack houses under Labour in 2002

reduced to only ten or so in 2005 since Lib Dems pushed through this reform;

*to establish London's first ever 24-hour/7-day a week emergency drug and sex paraphernalia clean-up service ;

• to establish Neighbourhood Safety Teams consisting of the key partners in Lambeth's town centres;

• to co-ordinate regular community safety meetings between the Borough Chief Executive, the Police Commander and the Executive team to ensure enhanced co-operation;

*to work with the Borough Commander to fund a team that goes some way torectifying the joy Lambeth's criminals feel after Labour's decision to end funding for the Safer Streets Unit.

Lambeth Labour chose not to work with the borough's police at any level when in power. Labour also failed to meet its statutory obligation to produce a community strategy by 31 March 2002. Under Labour, Lambeth also had its community safety functions placed on special measures by the Home Secretary in 2002.