Residents up in arms at Labour's plans to scrap street wardens

3.07.50pm GMT Tue 30th Jan 2007

Lambeth residents are up in arms about Labour's plans to scrap wardens.

A meeting of Lambeth's Labour cabinet rejected pleas by residents to keep the wardens,

despite hearing that they had police support. They also rejected Lib Dem plans to retain wardens and pay for police constables.

Jack Bowles, of Streatham's Crime Working Group, told councillors that Streatham's wardens schemes had the support of local people and local police. He wrote to the Council, but had not had a reply from the Council Leader.

Jack said: "Both the crime working group and Streatham police believe that the wardens and Safer Neighbourhood Teams enhance each other's work and one does not replace the other. In my discussions with senior police officers they are also very supportive of the schemes as they regard the wardens as a valuable addition to combating crime and disorder in Streatham."

Babington Road resident Gillian Tyson pleaded with the Cabinet to delay the decision, saying the serious anti-social behaviour on local streets had been dealt with by the wardens, in cooperation with the police. "The whole purpose of wardens was to provide responsible adults on the streets who were not police, did not have powers of enforcement, and could therefore gain the trust of groups who were suspicious of authority," she told the Labour Cabinet. She said she feared the situation would rapidly deteriorate if the wardens were axed.

Labour's plans to replace wardens with Community Support Officers will not meet Lambeth's different needs, according to the Lib Dem councillor chairing a scrutiny commission looking at how our streets can be patrolled properly.

Cllr Darren Sanders said: "Labour's one-size-fits all option takes away popular wardens while not securing one police person who can arrest the drug dealers and criminals that blight our borough. The Lib Dem proposal backs up what places like Liverpool are doing and deserves a hearing."

"And Labour have broken their promise to introduce street wardens in areas like Stockwell. Just one year ago they were calling for them, now they are going back on their promise!"

Labour are scrapping the wardens without waiting for the recommendations of the cross-party scrutiny commission chaired by Cllr Sanders.

Chris Nicholson, Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Streatham, commented: "If Labour were really concerned about fighting crime they would have accepted the Liberal Democrat costed proposals to keep the warden scheme and employ more police. Instead they seemed more interested in political point scoring - so they ignored the representations of Lambeth residents to save the warden scheme"