Beyond Kennington: A roundup of rioting

A quick roundup for posterity.... This morning, I along with hosts of other Londoners, are rubbing bleary eyes and wondering how to make sense of it all. Kennington was mostly clear of violence, but due to the difficulty of accurately naming places in London, you'd not have believed it from reading Twitter.

A cleanup of Walworth Road is being organised (is underway), although one report suggests there's not as much to do as was previously imagined.  If you're nearer somewhere else and you have some free time, you can take a look at your nearest cleanup from the cleanup map here.

I was first aware of trouble last night when I was driving through the Walworth area at approximately 18:55.  As I pulled out of Manor Place and into Browning Street, I saw hordes of people running north up Walworth Road towards Elephant and then more scared people running up Browning Street.  I turned the car around further up the steet as I was trying to get down Walworth Road, only to see the flimsy orange police barrier knocked to the ground, and a number of police on Walworth Road milling around.  I decided not to stay around and gawk so I have no photos, and I headed back to SE11.

I spent much of last night on Twitter, trying to establish where/if we had any trouble spots.  The problem with Twitter is that completely untrue rumours spread very quickly, so much time was spent reassuring people that there were no real problems in Kennington.  On the whole, that's correct, although there's an area to the east of Kennington tube station slightly south of Walworth Road which some people call Kennington.  I've no idea what it's called, but some trouble over there gave the impression that we were over-run with rioters, when that was not the case.

After I returned home, the first Tweet I saw at 19:13 was:

At 19:32, @meccleshall Tweeted from Tesco on Kennington Lane to say that it was closing early and that shoppers had been asked to pay and leave.  At 19:33, @Nooskibooski noted that they'd seen two masked teenagers loading a TV into a black BMW in Kennington, but I was unable to discover which road. 

At 19:47, we saw a worrying Tweet about youths with ammunition in Kennington, but you'll note they were headed to Walworth Road, so can only assume that this was east of Kennington tube station.  Nobody else corroborated:

At 19:49, somebody Tweeted to say that Argos in Kennington was being looted.  I informed them that there was no Argos in Kennington, but from that we assumed that the Argos in Walworth Road was being raided.  Of course, that and other Tweets just sparked off more tweets about trouble in Kennington which various people disputed.  Kennington Park Road (A3) was said to be running smoothly with no traffic or queues.

At 20:06, we learned that "they" were now in Kennington, but since I couldn't get information on any given road, it was unclear to discern precisely where.  However, some Tweets at 20:07 and 20:10 re. Kennington tube station cleared up any misunderstanding.  I can only presume that trouble briefly escaped into Kennington Park Road because these were the only tweets about any issues escaping from Southwark over the Lambeth border (in Kennington) all night.  I retweeted to say that the tube station was closed:

But at 20:18, @Slicktony3000 (who was very helpful with information last night) reassured everybody that the only people he could see on Kennington Park Road were joggers!  So you can see that it was very difficult to determine whether any trouble was occurring at all (in the meantime, lots of panicky Tweets were all saying that trouble had reached Kennington).

At 20:31, after my request that people specify road names when they claimed problems in Kenington, @acediscovery said it was quiet in Alberta Street (just north of Kennington tube).  But at exactly the same time, @MsWildThyme tweeted to say that 8 riot vans and black armoured vehicles had been seen headed down Penton Place.  Other than that, it was quiet around the Pullens Estate.

I believe that's probably what generated these somewhat bizarre videos of riot vans on Walworth Road.  What on earth were they doing??

Another video was available here with some very scary screaming.  The video looked as though it had been taken from within the riot, with a voice asking the officers to "please calm down".  Unsurprisingly, it has now been removed. 

I kept Tweeting that we were experiencing no issues in Kennington, and that problems were acknowledged in Walworth Road when I caught a Tweet saying a stabbing had been reported on Kennington Park Road.  This turned out to be untrue and unfounded.  At 20:39, @msraddi said that riot police were running down Manor Place.  More messages were received to say that Kennington Cross, Kennington Road and Kennington Lane were fine (as they were all night).

At 21:11, @gilboise tweeted to say that Kennington tube was open, but at 21:13, @igster noted "kids in hoodies" screaming past Kennington tube.  At 21:34, @TheRealJimShady said that he'd driven from Clapham South to Kennington and noted no problems.  Was just breathing a sigh of relief, and wondering if there was time to take a break for dinner when alarming reports of a shooting appeared at 21:41:

Established that an exchange of gunfire was taking place somewhere on the Alberta Estate.  Various Tweets were flying around which generally corroborated problems in the area.  At 22:18, @Deskibel said a friend had heard gunshots on or around Alberta Street.

At 22:26, the Guardian issued more detailed reports about what had happened on Walworth Road.

At 22:54, Cllr Mark Harrison (@SE11) Tweeted that we should strongly support our emergency services at times like this.  I agreed, and re-tweeted. @Uber0ut noted that pedestrians were back on Walworth Road.  From there on in, we started to hear reports that Walworth Road had been entirely trashed.  Tweets came in suggesting that both Stockwell and Camberwell had escaped any trouble bar an attempted-car jack on Coldharbour Lane.  (Although this may nto be true because there appears to be a cleanup taking place in Camberwell this morning).  At 23:27, @JustinPDJ reported large numbers of police headed from Kennington towards Clapham (the rest we know about from the TV).  For the rest of the night, Kennington (which houses large numbers of police buildings and vehicles) was sirens as usual.

At 00:14, BT issued a Tweet only to call 999 in an absolute emergency due to immense pressure on the number.  We learned that a few riot police were guarding the remains of the looted shops in Walworth Road. 

Finally, I received alarming reports at about 01:02 from @SW8guy and @CarolineFW that there was a fire at Southbank club on Wandsworth Road.  There was a lot of smoke, but no flames visible.  The Fire Brigade were able to bring it under control. 

Robbery on Kennington Park Road on 27th February - appeal for witnesses

Lambeth Police are appealing for witnesses to a robbery that occurred last Sunday (27 February) at 1am on Kennington Park Road. 

A white man in his thirties (6'2" in height, bald head, large build, wearing a navy blue top) attacked a couple who were on their way home from a glam rock fancy dress party.  The female member of the couple was knocked to the ground, and her male partner fought off the attacker who fled the area.

At that point, the couple were confronted by four black men (in their twenties) who demanded a mobile phone.  The male victim defended himself again and fought with one of the men who he managed to chase away.  At the same time, another one of the attackers took the bag of the female victim which had fallen to the floor in the earlier attack.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call DC Michael Quinlan of Lambeth Borough police who is investigating this case on 020 8649 2478. Alternatively you can report information anonymously to Crime stoppers on 0800 555 111. 

The police appeal can be found here.

Child stabbed outside Manley House in Kennington

I've received reports that at approximately 8:20pm this evening, a male child was stabbed outside Manley House, Black Prince Road in Kennington.  Police were called and and the child was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Police tape around Walnut Tree Walk and Ethelred Estate

As I travelled into Kennington this evening, I noticed police tape surrounding much of Kennington Road, south of the Imperial War Museum with a policeman guarding the area.  A number of residents were denied entry to their properties in the location.  I received an email from a reader (thank you) stating that late this afternoon two muggings took place in Kennington.  (This is an unconfirmed report, and I've not yet managed to corroborate it).

The first mugging occurred in the lift between Scotson  House and Vantry House on the Ethelred Estate.  The victim was male.  The culprits were two young men who were seen wearing hoodies and face masks.  Shortly afterwards, another person was allegedly mugged on Walnut Tree Walk, although since (as of 11pm this evening), police are still at the scene, there is a possibility that the incident was more serious.

If you have any further information, please contact Kennington Police Station on 0300 123 1212.

6 people stabbed / shot on Vassall Road last night - When we needed the Big Society, were you there?

It's slightly south of the SE11 area, but I was horrified to read the SLP report of 6 people shot/stabbed on Vassall Road yesterday at about 21:30 yesterday.  The SLP also state that the youngest victim was 14, but this contradicts the following from Stockwell Park Neighbourhood Watch.

Stockwell Park Neighbourhood Watch have stated that two of the victims were stabbed at about 20:41 on Cowley Road.  An ambulance was called, and whilst the crew were attending, two youths on bikes cycled past and firde several shots on a hand gun.  Consequently, four additional people were injured.  None of the injuries are life threatening and the ambulance crew remained unharmed.  After initial assessment, the police believe the incident was gang related and that none of the victims were "neutral".  (I take that to mean that they were innocent bystanders).  The victims are said to be within the age range of 16-18.  No suspects have been detained and police presence in the area will remain high to deter further violence.

I regularly defend this part of South London as a safe place to live against voices to the contrary.  Violence around here is sporadic and usually not against innocent bystanders, but that doesn't excuse it. Sometimes  the distance between Cleaver Square and Vassall Road seems huge.  Lambeth Council currently spend money on youth and anti-gang activities, and yet such funding is at risk in our new Big Society.  Does the funding make any difference?  After each stabbing or shooting, I always ask, "what can we do?".  And I'll keep asking it because I don't want us to stop being shocked. 

As residents, bloggers, commuters and workers, what are our options to prevent young people from turning to crime?  What do we do about the disparity between the haves and have nots?  Is it disparity that is the problem here?  Are the residents who live in relative poverty having a chance to meet the residents who are affluent?  Where is the forum in which we can discuss these issues?  We have neighbourhood groups and residents associations, blogs, and newspapers, but how often do we meet people who are different from us?  Is our response to stay in after dark and to keep our heads down when we walk along our streets?  Do we know the young people in our midst, and how might our neighbourhood be a community that shares its gifts?

I maintain that these stabbings and shootings are not what define our area.  We're defined by our friendliness and our openness to celebrate and share cultural differences.  We're defined by the number of community groups and "friends of" groups that are regularly set up in our midst.  And then something like this happens, and we talk of youth, gangs, drugs, opportunities and education, but I'm not sure if we're seeing any change.  When we needed the Big Society, were you there, were you there?

For an 18th January update on this incident, please continue reading at Stockwell News.

Oval SNT police consultation on closing Kennington Park Midnight path at night

Apologies for the late notice, but I only discovered this afternoon (through @KenParkFriends on Twitter) that the Oval SNT will be conducting a consultation from 5.30pm TONIGHT (Wednesday 13th October) about closing the Midnight path through Kennington Park at night.  The midnight park connects Kennington residents in Lambeth with Kennington residents in Southwark and is a quick and useful cut through.  It always looks well used to me, especially at weekends.

This evening, the police will ask anybody that walks through the park whether they use the path at night, whether they feel safe when using the path and if they don't feel safe, whether they would like the path to be closed at night.

Apparently, 21 robberies have taken place recently (may have been over the last year, but I missed that crucial piece of info), and 80% of them have taken place when the park has been closed, and the majority of people that have been robbed have been men.

This is just the start of the consultation, and residents on both the Brandon Estate and the other side of the park are due to be consulted on the matter.  My view (since you asked) is that it's better not to use the path if you don't feel safe, and I'd argue against its closure.  Feel free to go to the consultation this evening and make your own views known. 

I wish I'd heard about this earlier, as it's of interest to local people.  I still can't figure out where it's been publicised up to this point.

Lansdowne Way Stabbing (July 2010)

I've just spotted a BBC Tweet which suggests there's been a stabbing on Lansdowne Way, Kennington.  Geographically, Lansdowne Way should be classified as Stockwell (or the boundaries of Oval) since it's a bit further south in Lambeth.  The 18 year old male in question has life threatening injuries.  There's a BBC Press Release here.

This has got to stop.  I really really hope that the man in question recovers.

I assume Stockwell News will report further as news becomes available.  Sadly, it appears that there was a stabbing just last year (June 2009) in Lansdowne Way June too.

New statistics on Lambeth: CPCG Police and Community Safety 2010 (part 1)

Every couple of years, just as the local area census data starts to look old, somebody commissions a report that sheds light on current trends and produces a new fascinating set of statistics.  On this occasion, it's the turn of the Community Police Consultative Group. Catriona Robertson (their project manager and report writer) has produced a superb account on the state of Lambeth community/police relations.  (Ms Robertson has her own blog and is also on Twitter).  I love statistics, (although my analysis skills are non-existent, so I'm just going to add some commentary in bold type).  I really welcome additional data about the area.  The report, Whose Shout? : Engagement on Community Safety in Lambeth, can be found here. 

From the report, I discovered that there is a State of the Borough Report (2008) which is perhaps worth examining further, and the GLA may also have produced additional figures in 2009, which help us identify who lives in the area, what they do and what opportunities are open to them.  In the mean time, I've mined the CPCG report for the following statistics, which I think you might find interesting:

* The annual turnover of population in Lambeth is 22% or 27%, if you include people who move within the borough (p5)
[This is exceedingly high, but not sure how it compares to London as a whole.]

* The population in Lambeth in 2007 was 285,580, although those registered with GPs in March 2009 was 352,762.  (p6)
[Assuming that there hasn't been a sudden rise of 68,000 residents in a year, that means that there are a lot of "hidden" folk in Lambeth.  Are these asylum seekers?  Undeclared relatives?  Folk from neighbouring boroughs who want to keep using Lambeth GPs?].

* Lambeth is the most ethnically diverse borough in London, with 52% of population beign white british, 14% being white (other), 34% being black, Asian and other. (p6). 
[It's probably worth exercising some caution here, since these figures are based on the 2001 census, and if we've got an annual turnover of 22%, I don't expect these figures to remain unchanged.  I say "hurrah" for diversity, but I'm intrigued to know whether the Borough is integrated enough, or whether some people live in unintentionally segregated groups.  I ask, on account of some recent comments on the blog, and some of the comments raised at the recent KOV meeting.]

* 60% of Lambeth is Christian, 5% Muslim, 8% other, and 29% preferred not to answer. (p6) 
[Seems to total over 100%, but nevermind.  I'd be really intrigued to know the breakdown of the 8% "other", assuming it's not Jedi or something silly.  I've a vague theory that Lambeth seems to have a higher than average number of Buddhists.  I suspect the 60% Christian figure is much higher than the national average, even once you factor out people who answer C of E by default.]

* Reliable sexual orientation data isn't available, but local surveys suggests an LGBT population of 3%-5%. (p6).  Homophobic crime rose by 46% during 2009-2010 
[Perhaps that's true of Lambeth as a whole, but my view is that Princes, Oval and parts of Stockwell wards have a significantly higher LGBT population, which I don't think is accounted for with this figure, which seems to only reflect national percentage.  The rise in homophobic crime is atrocious, but /could/ result in greater willingness to report crime.]

* Crime fell over 30% in Lambeth over seven years to 2009, although Lambeth remains a high crime area, with the third most recorded offences of all London boroughs 2008-2009. (p6) 
[I'm really suspicious of measurement of crime statistics because every few years, the police alter the definitions of certain crimes.  Also, many people still fail to report crime (especially if they're not supposed to officially be here), making this very difficult to track.  A 30% reduction, however, is probably high enough to be significant.  See here for my controversial view that knife crime is worse in North London than South London.]

* In 2009-1010, gun crime is up 33% in Lambeth and rape by 25%. (p6)
[I believe that the Borough Commander recently explained that the rise in gun crime is as a result of commercial incidents eg. bank robberies / holdups.  Obviously, that doesn't really excuse it, but I think it is worth noting that this is not necessarily gang related.  The rape statistic is very very concerning.]

* 16% of Lambeth population have a long-term limiting illness. (p7) 
[Is it me, or is this a horrifying statistic?  Surely 16% of the UK doesn't have a long-term limiting illness?  Perhaps this ties in with the recent statistic that Lambeth is the top London borough for unemployment  (9.3% of Lambeth /working age/ people are unemployed).  I suspect that the limiting illness figure is related to obtaining benefits, and that more money is available if you can demonstrate illness.  But from that figure, I want to be careful of drawing Daily Fail type conclusions.  I suspect that in Lambeth, many people draw benefits to care for older and ill extended family members and prefer to raise their own families (instead of buying in labour).  This likely reduces the bill to the state on child care and adult care homes.  However, I suspect the Tory/Lib Dem coalition may not interpret things quite as charitably!] 

* There is a much higher prevalence of mental illness in Lambeth, compared with the country as a whole.  around 37,000 (over 10% of the population) were being treated for anxiety and depression in 2008. (P7) [Again, this is a very high figure.  I wonder whether people who suffer from mental illnesses tend to live in boroughs where they know that they can seek treatment, or whether those who suffer from mental illness seek one another out, or whether mental illness is better diagnosed in Lambeth or even whether there's some kind of environmental factor that results in the higher correlation between living in Lambeth and mental illness.]

* Lambeth is the 5th most deprived Borough in Lambeth and the 19th most deprived borough in England (2007).  (p7)

This is part 1 of my summary of the Whose Shout? report, and really just contains the headline statistics and the points (with my commentary in blod) that I find most interesting and which I've not seen elsewhere.  I've not commented at all upon the police / community consultative angle of the report, and I'll do that in part 2.  The report comes in at a whopping 91 pages, and I doubt it will reach a wider audience unless it's summarised somewhat.  It's very useful on account of its length, but I think that there are some other conclusions that readers of this blog might be interested in, without needing to read the whole thing.  Expect part 2 in the next few days.

North London vs South London knife crime. Not all young people in South London are bad Boris.

I was just leaving work yesterday when the Tweets started to come in thick and fast.  Boris was in Vauxhall with a tonne of policefolk.  Of course, I assumed that they were just publicly clamping down on fare-dodging on the the 436 (known as the "free bus"), or maybe doing their border control thing, stopping the South Londoners going North.  But actually, Boris was busy worrying about half-term and the wild youth of Lambeth.

Perhaps I'm wrong in my assertion that Boris has no love for South London.  After all, he wouldn't visit if he didn't consider us once in a while.  One might assume that he'd need to visit Vauxhall to think about, you know, town centre planning, or a regeneration consultation or to look at the tall buildings he opposes and talk about sensible architectural policy and social housing.  Wrong.  Boris just visits dirty, bad, scary South London to test out his new knife arches.   These are knife arches that  have not been proven to reduce deaths through knife crime, or indeed been shown to improve community/youth relations.  Indeed, if you were a part of the majority of young people (the ones that don't carry knives and work/study hard), would you feel like a welcome member of society, when you were forced by police to walk through a knife arch?  Something tells me that many youths are not going to be as happy about it as the pretty-boy model used for the illustration.  And why should they be?

In the same way that Mr Onionbag protested when his patch in Oval was used to film the Bill, on the basis  that we already have a high police presence, I wish to question why Vauxhall was chosen for the BoJo knife arch demonstration.  Does the Vauxhall area need further adverse publicity?  I decided to conduct a little analysis on the 2006 and 2007 figures for knife crime, to try to determine whether it's worse in South London than in North, to see whether we really needed swarms of police testing knife arches in Vauxhall today.  The results are quite surprising.

Knife crime incidents that resulted in death (2006)
North London - (18 boroughs with some incident) and 49 total deaths = 2.72 deaths per borough.
South London - (10 boroughs with some incident) and 27 total deaths = 2.7 deaths per borough

Knife crime incidents that resulted in death (2007)
North London - (16 boroughs with some incident) and 46 total deaths = 2.875 deaths per borough
South London - (09 boroughs with some incident) and 26 total deaths = 2.89 deaths per borough

These figures are so close and seem to demonstrate that the knife crime deaths are very evenly balanced across the capital year-on-year.  If you were to add into the mix the number of boroughs where no knife crime took place (which I've not done), I believe that South London would show a lower ratio of knife crime deaths than North London in both years, but only by a small amount.

Consequently, I went back to the number crunching and analysed the figures for the number of people suffering serious injury as a result of being stabbed, in the hope that I'd yield a significant difference between North and South London.   These are slightly better figures since all boroughs had at least one incident each year, so all boroughs are taken into account in these results.

Incidents that resulted in serious injury due to stabbing (2006)
North London - (19 total boroughs) and 233 injuries = 12.2 injuries per borough.
South London - (13 total boroughs) and 151 injuries = 11.61 injuries per borough.

Incidents that resulted in serious injury due to stabbing (2007)
North London - (19 total boroughs) and 215 injuries = 11.21 injuries per borough.
South London - (13 total boroughs) and 139 injuries = 10.69 injuries per borough

These figures clearly show that South London is somewhat safer to lurk about in, although the southern most boroughs in South London do take up some of the slack, with Richmond etc. being extra-safe.

It seems that all of the figures are still too high.  One death is one too many.  But I'm not convinced about the effectiveness of knife arches for resolving what are essentially deep-rooted social issues concerning schooling, parenting and policing.  Personally, I think the 100 London table-tennis tables idea, gimmicky though it is, will do more to encourage neighbours to talk to one another than knife arches.  Once upon a time, Londoners used to say that careless talk might cost lives.  Today, perhaps it is a failure to talk that costs lives.

In the meantime, next time you want to do a knife arch demonstration, would it be ok to do it north of the River, where there is proportionately more knife crime across the boroughs, please Boris?

Glasshouse Walk gang attack on 5th April in Vauxhall

A resident has left a comment on my post about local gangs that that deserves mention in its own post. 

Unfortunately, the commentator and a friend were attacked in SE11 on Easter Monday, after returning at 11pm from an evening out.  They were followed by 3 youths and then kicked, beaten up and mugged by a total of 6 youths, on Glasshouse Walk.  The police suggested that the incident may be a gang initiation.

I feel very sad having to report this incident because I don't think it's behaviour that is representative of the area, but I think it's worth highlighting so that everybody is extra vigilent at night.  If you heard or saw anything on Monday night, I suggest you contact Kennington Police station.

I do wonder whether we need to work out a way to have some "entire community conversations" and think about some strategies for preventing this kind of senseless crime.  Ultimately, CCTV (of which we have plenty) is always pointing the wrong way or doesn't have film, or doesn't work at night.  The police are often not in the right place at the right time (which isn't their fault).  What would be good would be if we could be a little more imaginative as a community, and think about ways that we could better look out for one another, get to know our local youth and neighbours, and maybe think about neighbourhood watch.

Does anybody have any ideas?  Recommendations?  Is there anything our councillors can do?  I believe that if we can take an innovative stand in North Lambeth, and network more effectively so that we're not strangers, we should be able to reduce the numbers of random violent attacks.  Gangs cannot function well if people recognise their members as neighbours!  How about a community meeting for all concerned local residents?  Does anybody have strategies for how violent crime has been reduced in other areas?

Fairford House stabbing in Kennington... they kept that quiet

Kennington Association news blog has a report from the South London Press about a stabbing in Kennington. I get a lot of hits for people searching for stabbings, (often old events), but I did wonder why I had so many hits for Kennington Lane. See the SLP news report for further info, but it transpires that a 22 year old man was stabbed eight times on 26th April 2009 in Kennington Lane, outside Fairford House. Tha man hasn't been named. Amazingly, he survived the attack (get well soon!), and two 17 year olds are in custody.

Does anybody know the whereabout of Fairford House on Kennington Lane (in SE11)? Google maps can't account for it, and I'm not sure whether it's a residential building or an office block.

I haven't seen this stabbing reported anywhere else... It would be very useful to have reports from Lambeth police force about crime in the area, but as far as I know, no such news is available. Please drop me an email if you work with/for Lambeth police force, and would be interested in making news public to local news outlets or bloggers, other than the SLP.

Question 1: Name three main policies for Princes Ward

Nine days ago (before we even knew who all the candidates in the Princes Ward by-election would be), I sent out a series of questions, to be answered by all Princes Ward Council candidates. The questions and answers are intended to help SE11 voters choose who to vote for by ensuring the candidates speak about their policies, rather than focusing on name calling campaigns.

I now have nearly all responses (English Democrat has promised his are to come) and now intend to publish the results one question at a time. Anything in square brackets or in bold, I've added to standarise the format of responses across the parties or as summaries. I've not changed any of the text that I was sent by email, but I've had to move certain answers across to different questions in order to keep the answers similar (I've indicated in all cases where I've made any adjustments, so tell me if you object). I'll probably save my personal comments for a post at a later stage as I want these questions to represent the candidates as best possible. I've put responses in alphabetical order, depending on the name of the party, and I've colour coded them for your ease:

Conservative = Michael Poole-Wilson = Blue
English Democrats = Janus Polenceus = Purple
Green Party = Joseph Healy = Green
Labour = Mark Harrison = Red
Lib Dem = John Roberts = Orange

Question 1:
Name the three main policies that you will make your platform for election in Prince's Ward, eg. crime/transport/street care/environment etc. and highlight the strategies that you intend to undertake to implement the policies. Do not mention any of the opposing political parties in your answer.

Michael Poole-Wilson:
A. [Housing] I will campaign for a reduction in social housing rents and better repair services, which can be achieved if housing is managed more efficiently, including contract management.

B. [Council Spending] I will campaign for a reduction in wasteful spending at the council. For example, I will fight to stop production of the propaganda paper "Lambeth Life" and seek to end 6 figure salaries and unjustified bonuses for council staff.

C. [Parking] I will oppose over-zealous parking enforcement and am in favour of a freeze on the cost of parking permits.


Janus Polenceus:
A. [Crime / anti-social behaviour] To tackle street crime we should look at putting more police on foot or even on bicycle on every street especially through out the night, as a kind of night watch. In my opinion CCTV cameras are not much help to our public's safety.

To avoid youngsters being encouraged to get involved into street crime there needs to be much more discipline in local schools to educate our young ones why things such as crime, violence, discrimination & bullying is wrong. If a teenager is proven of committing a crime or behaving wrong then the local authority has to have a closer disciplinary act on the teenager's parents. Bad behaviour often originates from bad parenting.

Anti-Social Behaviour: Often especially on Sunday afternoons in Spring Gardens at the back of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern pub there is a large number of homosexual couples that are lying on the grass and enjoying themselves in broad daylight. This is not a good example/view for our children and not everyone wants to watch such activity in public. These couples should learn to be discreet and do such flirtations/activities inside the gay bars in Vauxhall or at least out from the public eye.

B. [Environment] The should be more bins placed on each street to encourage people to drop their litter into a litter bin.

To make life easier for people who have dogs there should be more Dog Areas created on our greens such as in Spring Gardens, Pedlar's Park, Lambeth High Street Recreation Ground and Lambeth Walk Doorstep Green;

Also in these parks there should be more playground attractions for children and more sports exercise facilities for adults.

C. [Heritage] The English Democrats Party believe that there should be more focus on promoting local history, heritage & culture. For example in our ward there is what use to be our famous 'Lambeth Walk', there is even a famous song about this place. Now for the last few decades the Lambeth Walk has been more or less like a ghost town or simply just a regular neighbourhood housing estate. For The Lambeth Walk not to be forgotten what it once was there should be some sort of memorial museum on the street itself for the people to learn what was so special about this place/area that use to be a busy shopping high street filled with entertainment. The Lambeth Walk was famous for its Music Hall, shopping malls, pearly kings & queens and famous local people such as Charlie Chaplin who shopped and also lived inside the ward. There should also be events & walks to keep the spirit of The Lambeth Walk going, such as the music of the time and costumes like the pearly kings & queens outfits that people wore in them days. This should be researched by our local schools.
The Lambeth Walk is part of English & Lambethean heritage, history & culture.

Also we should acknowledge the fact that South London was in-fact Surrey County until 1963 before it was recognised as part of what is called Greater London, also as part of local history study. Local history is very important especially for the young ones to know more about where they come from and live.


Joseph Healy:
A. [Housing/Homeless] I am opposed to the privatisation of First Call emergency repairs service, concierge service and North Lambeth Cleaning to even though existing contractors do an unsatisfactory job for the Housing Dept. I want radical action on empty properties so that they can be used to house people as soon as possible.

B. [Schools /Hospitals] I also support free school meals for children and a push by the Local Authority committees and Lambeth NHS to ensure that the quality of food in local hospitals is improved and is locally sourced if possible and nutritious. The current quality of much hospital food is appalling and militates against a speedy recovery.

Mark Harrison:
A. [Crime] Tackling crime and anti-social behaviour
* Compulsory tagging for dangerous dogs on estates - there needs to be a focus from housing officers on this issue to ensure that all dogs being kept on estates are monitored and fitted with microchips to aid identification. I will press for greater resources for Lambeth's dog warden services, and continuing attention from the police on the issue.

* Guaranteed funding to get CCTV working again - With the Ethelred TMO Board I've been campaigning over the past year for the Council to pay the contractor to come back on site and get the system up and running. Pressure on Lambeth Living has resulted in the Chief Executive meeting the TMO and negotiations are ongoing. We're hopeful that continuing pressure will pay off. Other estates with CCTV that is broken should have its repair prioritised.

* Hit drug dealers and buyers with ASBOs that ban them from SE11 - it's totally within the Council's powers to issue ASBOs to individuals who are causing a nuisance by dealing or buying drugs. Labour is committed to using ASBOs as a useful tool for tackling anti-social behaviour.

* Support Labour's Safer Neighbourhood Police Team - Labour is committed to the Safer Neighbourhoods Teams because we set them up. A Labour Council will do everything in its power to support the Teams. As a ward councillor I will attend the meetings and ensure officers are fully aware of all the issues in the ward.#

B. [Youth / Community] Youth and community services
* Commitment to securing the old Lilian Baylis School site as a permanent community hub, with continued support for the Sports Action Zone and other community facilitiies.##

* Support for Labour's increased funding for youth services, luncheon clubs, street cleaning, trees, streets, children's services, and domestic violence prevention.

C. [Housing] Housing
* Work with Kate Hoey and councillors to lobby government to help reduce this year's rent increase
* Continue extensive work with residents' associations across the ward to help them in their battles to improve services from Lambeth Housing
* Campaign to radically improve customer service from Lambeth Housing
* Help the Vauxhall Five Estate win its new windows and balconies
* Help get the Ethelred's CCTV and security doors working

The # and ## symbols indicate footnotes in which Mark responded to previous comments that I've made in this blog and elsewhere. I'll try to publish his comments in a later post since I've sought to avoid mention of opposing parties in this question.

John Roberts:
A. [Crime] If elected, I will continue to work hard to get more funding to tackle crime locally and I already have the links to get this moving. This would include holding advice surgeries with the police, to link the work of the police and the council – something some other Lib Dem Councillors already do. As an estate resident, I am concerned that recent cuts to funding on estates – including cuts to Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) will encourage crime and anti-social behaviour; if elected I will fight to reverse recent funding cuts

B. [Housing] The council has just implemented a 17% rent rise at a time of economic hardship. The government recently launched an initiative to reduce the rent rise nationally from 6.2% to 3.1%. Like many others on the Ethelred and other Princes ward estates my service charge jumped from £210 to over £600, in two years. If elected I will be backing the Lib Dem Group’s call for a lower rent rise. [Edited this to remove mention of other parties.]

C. [Environment / Community] On the local environment and community resources
* I want Kennington Cross to be more than just a junction and am supporting plans from the Kennington Association like the Tree of Hope and the ‘Arts Lav’ to improve the pavement area outside the Dog House pub and St Anselms Church. We should be looking to support more local shops rather than yet more estate agents! I will continue to support our local parks and green open spaces. I am proud that the Lib Dems have consistently fought to protect our green open spaces like Lambeth Walk Open Space and Spring Gardens from development – in an inner city area like Lambeth, where few people are lucky enough to have gardens, green open spaces are vital for all members of the community to enjoy.

* With regard to the Old Lilian Baylis site, I fully support the Ethelred Nursery and the Sports Action Zone using the site – it was Lib Dem Councillors who helped launch the Sports Action Zone there in 2005. But the future of the site is still hopelessly uncertain at the moment. Lambeth’s latest plans would also see a new church developed on the site. It is not at all clear how the Sports Action Zone and the Nursery will be able to share the site with the church. Residents do not seem to have been given the chance to be involved with the plan. We need to know why established local community groups have not been included. We need to know what the governance arrangements will be. And we need to have evidence that the council is getting best value for local people if it does hand the site over to a third party.

* I will ask Lambeth Street Care officers to carry out regular walkabouts with me around local “grot spots” so we can deal with these issues BEFORE they become serious problems. I also look forward to working with residents groups to tackle such problems in their local area.

[Lib Dems answered this question with info about what the candidate had already achieved. That information fits better in second question so I've moved it.]

Lambeth Council - "Check the label" campaign

In case you thought that the SE11 youths of Lambeth were a singular mass of menace and nuisance, 24dash reports that Lambeth Council have launched a campaign (named "check the label") to tell you otherwise. That means that if you see any scary looking people on posters, you can read the text next to their faces and be reassured that they just look scary, but are in fact fine, upstanding citizens. So that's alright then!

Less than 3% of Lambeth youth is (apparently) involved in crime (those would be the ones they've caught), so our local youth need Lambeth Council's backing to improve their image. I still wonder why these aspiring youth need to look as menacing as they appear to in the photographs. I'm presuming that all of this local area blogging is turning me into a social conservative, and that I've aged before my time, but really! Why aren't there any young smiling people? And more importantly, where are the black women with the "aspiring" labels on them? It may be that the selection of four photographs on the Young Lambeth website is not representative of the entire campaign and I know that one can't seek to represent everybody, but I think it's a question worth asking.

I didn't know about the existence of the Young Lambeth website until today, but it seems like a new initiative. Let's hope it doesn't go the sad sorry way of the Lambeth LGBT forum which doesn't seem to have had its meeting dates updated since 2007, has a defunct "discussion board" forum, a distinct lack of information in the Police Update Board section amd no up and coming events. What is our council tax being spent on?

This is terrible, I seem to be becoming the resident whinger of SE11.

Local Development Framework - Draft Core Strategy [Sections 1 and 2]

Lambeth council recently released a draft version of its "Core Strategy", which is the most important document contained in the "Local Development Framework". The entire document is 116 pages long, although the Council welcome comments. I've been sifting through it over the past few days have and produced a cut-down version, mostly just summarising what was written. I've not changed their wording much, but have shortened and simplified because it contains some interesting ideas for the Borough.

I've used the document headings where possible, but have not summarised every section as it's a highly repetitive document.
The terms in purple are the "key" definitions.
The insightful comments in red are my comments.

Section 1 – Introduction

A Local Development Framework (LDF) is a collection of documents designed to guide development of a borough over 15/20 years. The Core Strategy is the first and most important document in the LDF. A Local Development Framework must achieve sustainable development for the area it covers. The four guiding principles for sustainable development are: Social progress, Environmental protection, Prudent use of natural resources and High levels of economic growth and employment. (p4)

The Lambeth Sustainable Community Strategy is a document used to prepare The Core Strategy, and the Sustainable Community Strategy contains data related to social, economic and environmental wellbeing, including health and community safety information. (p92)

Overall vision for Lambeth Sustainable Community Strategy is that by 2020 Lambeth will be a diverse, dynamic and enterprising borough at the heart of London, and there are 7 long term outcomes for the area:

* Great place to do business with high investment
* Greater well being for households through more residents in employment
* More young people on path to success
* Safe and cohesive places where people are empowered and play active roles in communities
* Improved health / well being of people to live independent lives
* Lower levels of poverty / exclusion by helping adults into employment, education and training
* Mixed and sustainable communities with more new homes, improved existing dwellings and environment

Lambeth’s LDF will be important tool to implement spatial aspects of outcomes such as geographical inequality, new housing and jobs and delivering infrastructure. (p6)

Significant proportion of Lambeth Core Strategy is dependent on private sector for delivery, re. new housing and commercial development; offices, etc. This is dependent on availability of development finance through the market. The Lambeth Core Strategy is meant to be flexible enough to enable private sector development at all stages of economic cycle.

Section 2 – Evidence Base

Population and Diversity

Lambeth covers an area area of approximately ten and a half square miles and population projected to grow 17% to 317,000 by 2026. Lambeth is among the most densely populated areas in the country, and current household composition includes high proportion of single parent households with dependent children. Population churn is estimated at 20% every year. [That’s very high! I didn't realise that so many people stayed in Lambeth so briefly.] (p13)

Lambeth is even more ethnically diverse than rest of London. The largest groups of immigrants between 2002 and 2006 were Polish, and after that Australian, and then Jamaican. [It seems to me that it’s a bit pointless to have “diversity” be an aim of the Sustainable Community Strategy when this has clearly already been achieved and is unlikely to change!] (p13)

Deprivation

2007 Index of Multiple Deprivation places Lambeth as 5th most deprived borough in London and 19th most deprived in England, which is worse than 2004, and is a result of improvements in other boroughs as well as a decline in Lambeth of income, health/disability, living environment and access to housing/barriers to services. (p13). The most deprived areas are spread, but concentrated in Coldharbour ward in Brixton, and Crown Lane area of Knights Hill ward. Most affluent include the Thames-side part of Bishops and Dulwich borer area of Thurlow Park (p14).

Housing

Lambeth’s housing consists 70% flats and 30% houses and is typical of inner London. Price of an average dwelling is around £350k in December 2007, but this had decreased by approx. 12% by December 2008. [That brings down the average dwelling to being worth £308k by my calculations.] Average gross household income in Lambeth is 31k per year. [My guess is that that's quite low for London as a whole.] (p14)

32% of council homes and estimated 11% of private sector dwellings were assessed as “unfit” by Council’s private sector stock condition survey in 2004. [That is bad. Are they really saying that a third of council homes are unfit for habitation? Are people actually living in them?] There are just under 2k households living in temporary accommodation (Dec 2008), and 13kish households in “housing need” within the Borough. (p14)

Economy

There are around 10k businesses in Lambeth. 75% of these have fewer than 5 employees. Lambeth has third lowest business density per head of population across inner London, but numbers of VAT registered firms grew by 14% between 2002 and 2006. [This will probably drop again due to the recession.] (p14)

There’s a cluster of large employers around Waterloo/Vauxhall. Over half of Lambeth’s existing jobs are located in Waterloo/South Bank area. The borough suffers high rates of unemployment – 71% of working age people employed in 2007/2008 in Lambeth compared with 70% across London and 74% nationally. (Doesn’t sound that bad to me, compared with the 70% figure for whole of London). Lambeth has one of highest number of incapacity benefit claimants (p15).

Education and Transport

Lambeth has 86 schools of which 13 are secondary. There’s a shortage of secondary places in the borough. There are very few surplus places in Lambeth primary schools and demand is expected to rise. Over 123 community languages are spoken in Lambeth schools in addition to English. (p15)

There are 14 overground railway stations spread evenly and 8 underground stations mainly in the north, with many bus routes. Residents in Streatham and West Norwood are dependent on rail and bus connections. Half of households don’t have access to a car, which is one of highest proportions in the country. Traffic congestion is a serious concern for residents. (p16)

Environment

There are 1.54 hectares of unrestricted open space in Lambeth per 1000 of the population, but access is unevenly spread and limited in north of the borough (p16). Total energy consumption in Lambeth is 3.2% of total energy consumption in London [seems quite low to me, considering Lambeth's high population, but this might be due to lack of industry]. In September 2008, an estimated 6700 households were in fuel poverty. Lambeth has lower levels of carbon dioxide emissions at 5.5 tonnes per 1000 population than London as a whole (6.8 tonnes). Despite predicted improvements in air quality in Lambeth over next 4/5 years, some measures eg. Nitrogen dioxide will continue to fail government targets (p17).

In line with targets, 25% of Lambeth household waste was recycled in 2007/8 and that has increased steadily from less than 10% in 2001/2002. Lambeth ranked 20th for house household recycling and composting in 2007/8 amongst London boroughs (p17). [It sounds as though Lambeth have taken vast steps forward, but there must be some way to go, since 20th is quite a long way down! Would be interesting to have a ranking compared to the country as a whole.]

Health and social care

Lambeth scores the 4th worst in London on unhealthy lifestyles and obesity is growing among young people. There are an estimated 5029 people in borough for whom drug use is a problem. [I expect this is a chronic underestimation because these stats. are likely to be very difficult to measure, and underestimating means that provision of services can be avoided.] Lambeth has one of highest incidence of mental health issues in capital, particularly among residents from ethnic minority backgrounds (p18).

Lambeth has a high and increasing birth rate, and numbers expected to live over 85 years old will increase demand in care services. Lambeth has the highest teenage conception rate in the UK (p18). [That’s a news headline if ever there was one.]

Community Safety

p18/19 Comparing London Boroughs, Lambeth had 4th highest count of Total Notifiable Offences (which includes majority of crimes, but excludes more minor offences), but that has been reducing since 2003/2004. Gun enabled crimes are high but decreasing. Tackling gang related crime, violent extremism and threat of terrorism are growing priorities for the borough. Crime in Lambeth is high around public transport interchanges.

[Even my cut down version of the document is long (around 4k words), so I'm going to post the next interesting sections as separate posts just to break it down somewhat.]

Kennington - Shooting of Asley Kemete - White Hart Street

I think I'm absolutely last on this story, as it has been covered extensively elsewhere, but a 20 year old man named Ashley Kemete was shot in Kennington, White Hart Street at 9.10pm last night.

The reports all seem to suggest that three people shot at Ashley. The Press Association have released an informative press release. The Bexhill Observer is naming locals who are putting it down to gang related violence. Apparently, there are 5 gangs in the immediate area! I have to say that I wonder whether that figure is somewhat inflated, but I don't know how I'd disprove it. I'm trying not to think about the number of people wandering around in SE11 with guns on their person.

It's a very busy place for a shooting to happen, and occured in such a populated spot that drinkers in the White Hart heard the gun shots. Various reports also mention that there were a number of witnesses, which probably means it's more likely that perpetrators will be caught.

When in the car this morning, I noticed the area had been cordoned off with tape, and was buzzing with police officers (and a lot of people talking to the police officers), but didn't suspect that a shooting had occured deep in the heart of, what is for this blog, SE11 land.

"You can talk to Trident officers on 020 8247 4553 or, to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."

Rape in Kennington?

The Sun newspaper have reported that a woman in her 20s was seriously sexually assaulted in Kennington on Saturday night (September 27th). It happened at 1:30am, and despite a passerby calling the police when seeing the woman in question flee from a man, the police appear to have arrived too late to catch the attacker. The woman's friends report that she suffered cuts and bruising as she tried to resist the attacker.

For some reason, the police appear to think that the woman might have been stalked for several weeks prior to the attack. The paper reports that the woman is a "top model".

The Sun only suggests that the crime in question was a rape ("tried to rape her"), but does mention that the attack lasted 20 minutes, and that a DNA sample was taken from the woman, which will be tested by the police.

Whilst the block of flats that the woman lived in was apparently equipped with CCTV, not all of the cameras were working.

I can only assume the attack took place in SE11 somewhere (but we have found the media's reporting of "Kennington" to be wide of the mark), but I don't like the fact that there's no report that the man in question has been caught.

The woman concerned is in my thoughts and prayers.

SE11 Monthly Crime Update: July 2008

I just noticed that the July 2008 stats are out for the Metropolitan Police Crime Map. The Police have started to compare the different levels of crime in each different Borough when you click in detail on the map. However, I'm turning it into a crude chart format so we can watch Lambeth in-depth over the next few months.

See my previous post for reasons as to why these stats. are not definitive.

Comparison:

Lambeth crime levels (Average - June 08, Average - July 08)
Southwark crime levels (High - June 08, Above Average - July 08)
Westminster crime levels (High - June 08, High - July 08)

So, overall, things have improved somewhat in Southwark, and Lambeth remains the same. Now, breaking Lambeth down into its boroughs, we find as follows:

(3 = Average, 4 = Above Average)

Jul08 Jun08
3........3 = Bishops
3........3 = Brixton Hill
3........3 = Clapham Common
3........3 = Clapham Town
3........4 = Cold Harbour
3........4 = Ferndale
3........3 = Gipsy Hill
3........3 = Herne Hill
3........3 = Knight's Hill
3........3 = Larkhall
4........4 = Oval Ward
4........3 = Princes
3........4 = St Leonards
3........3 = Stockwell
3........3 = Streatham Hill
3........3 = Streatham South
3........3 = Streatham Wells
3........3 = Thornton
3........4 = Thurlow Park
3........3 = Tulse Hill
3........3 = Vassall Ward

Oval Ward has high crime for 2 months running and in Princes Ward, crime has risen to the "high crime" bracket. However, other than that, crime has broadly either stayed the same or improved throughout Lambeth and every borough is reporting "average" crime. Furthur investigation reveals that 31 crimes were reported in Princes in June, but in July, this went up to 41!

Crime in SE11, Lambeth, Southwark and surrounds

On some of my previous posts, I've been scathing about people who consider South London to be dangerous, full of crime and not worthy of their attention. I've been interested for some time about how much crime is really committed in the different parts of London, and what type of crime etc. I'm most interested in SE11, but being so close to SE1, SE17, SW8 and SW9, it seems that a wider view ought to be taken. We can hardly stop people postcode hopping to commit crime!

Crime statistics are massively flawed for (at least) the three following reasons:

1. Crime stats. depend upon people reporting crime. I know lots of people who are the victims of petty theft who wouldn't report their crime if they didn't think that there was anything the police could do.

2. The police, periodically, change the definition of of what constitutes a crime "bracket" for a particular crime. So if one bracket goes up too much eg. "violent crime", they'll remove car crime from the bunch and place it in a different bracket. This makes long term study of crime very difficult because it's hard to tell where the boundaries have moved from and to.

3. Periodically, the area boundaries for measurement of crime are changed. I'm not sure whether this is so much of a problem as changing definitions, but it no doubt factors.

Anyhow, having said that, I found that the Metropolitan police (with some cleverish google mapping) have plotted a crime map of London (excluding the City). The "crimes" it counts are burglary, robbery and vehicle crime. The map uses colour to display highest crime areas in orange and red, and average in yellow. One can then break the areas down furthur and see the crime in particular wards.

Overall, Lambeth has a yellow shading (average crime), but Southwark has a red shading (high crime) for June 2008. I checked the figures, which state 850 crimes in June 2008 in Southwark, and 739 in Lambeth. It seemed to me then that the margin of difference between the brackets was small. However, I've played around a little more and it seems that the average numbers are calculated on the size of the borough in question. Westminster had fewer crimes committed than Lambeth, but since it's smaller, it records "above average" crime for London. The site is only in "Beta/testing" mode at the moment and I've asked for feedback as to more detail on the crime for future versions....

Anyhow, looking at Lambeth overall, there are (as is predictable) pockets of parts of Lambeth with more crime than others for June 08, but the good news first:

Average Crime compared with the rest of London: Bishops Ward, Princes Ward, Vassall Ward, Stockwell Ward, Larkhall Ward, Clapham Town Ward, Clapham Common Ward, Brixton Hill, Herne Hill, Thornton Ward, Tulse Hill Ward, Streatham Hill Ward, Streatham South, Streatham Wells, Gipsy Hill, Knight's Hill,

The bad news (but note that Lambeth has no wards with "high" crime:
Above Average Crime compared with the rest of London: Oval Ward, Ferndale Ward, Cold Harbour Ward, Thurlow Park Ward and St Leonards Ward.

Lambeth is statistically safer (but remember that this is an odd figure because of the different ward sizes) than both Southwark and Westminster.

SE11 has average crime levels for June 2008 (much of the area is in Princes Ward so that seems correct), the small Oval Ward subsection of SE11 also has average crime levels. The west of SE11 (a small subsection of Princes ward) has above average crime, but it's not clear how much of that might stem from the Albert Embankment.

However, the borders of SE11 are not so good. At the south and east side, SE11 is surrounded by 3 pockets of "above average" crime and 1 pocket of "high" crime (I suspect that that is due to Vauxhall Station and its unpleasant surrounds). Directly north of SE11 near Elephant, there is a pocket of "above average" crime as well.

As I said above, I'm hoping that the Metropolitan Police Crime Map will be developed over the next few months so that it will be possible to compare different periods of time and break down the type of crime in any area. I'll report back as soon as they release the figures for July 2008, so we can just see whether it was a quiet month, of whether Lambeth might really be declared to be a place of only "average" crime.

How "buying agents" clearly have no idea who has the best parties...

One of the interesting things about the Kennington News blog is that the author of it clearly uses some sort of online news gathering software which just picks out the word "Kennington", whatever the article might be about. This is useful in that the blog includes everything from articles vaguely relating to Kennington (it just so happens that the last block of "blue" aeroplane toilet ice landed through the roof of a couple in Kennington) to those that are highly relevant (advertisements of church fetes, local plays etc.). It also means that any bias against negative news is entirely bypassed as everything that hits the word is covered.

This article on How buying agents found my dream home in London caught my eye today. I am, in one sense rather glad that Kennington - SE11 - will not become occupied in the immediate future by those who do not want to live in a mixed society - rich, middle-income and poor; black, brown and white; Buddhist, Muslim and Christian; gay, bi and straight, all next door to one another. In another sense, I am, quite frankly shocked that somebody would consider the threat of being mugged (on the word of one person) as a reason not to move to the area! As an aside, it is probably the fact that I have spent so much time trudging around all of the back streets around here that I refuse to be afraid (or maybe I really am just foolish) of moving to SE11. I mean who, in their right mind, goes to a local police station and asks how safe an area is? Most police stations only see the worst of an area. I always remember with admiration a friend of mine who said, "everyone told me not to send my children to that school because they would learn nothing, but nobody seemed to think of the fact that the other children at the school might benefit from having my children there".

I think Kennington is a particularly fascinating area because it is one of those places that it is impossible to gentrify. Whilst there will always exist large Georgian and Victorian properties worth millions, those houses and flats will always (I hope) sit alongside 1920s and post-WW2 local authority housing. Long may this coninue, because I think that such social mixing is vital for any area. I do not think that this country is one in which the poor will be less poor, anytime soon (whilst many people say that they want this, it's not clear to me that many people have enacted a viable corporate politic that might make it concrete). But neither do I consider that those who are wealthy should be allowed to cocoon themselves off in boring little safehavens where they might never be accosted by somebody that smells bad. Why is it assumed that people should want (if they are rich) or should be forced (if they are poor) to live in places where everybody else there is like them?

Anyhow, there's no doubt that Regent's Canal beats the SE11 gas cylinders... But perhaps it's me, or maybe not; I think that Kennington, Oval, Vauxhall, Stockwell, Elephant, Brixton and their surrounds still possess something that pulls the kind of people who choose (or are forced) to stick two fingers up in the face of the risk of "crime" and say, "to hell with north London, where is everybody else?"