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Home Secretary David Blunkett in Kennington

from Cathy (cathyvpreece@aol.com)

Stark message over crack dens

Mar 14 2003
By Richards Evans

South London Press

"We are not putting up with the intolerable any longer. If you are causing misery and distress, we will come down on you like a ton of bricks."

That was the stark message from Home Secretary David Blunkett as he announced new powers to shut down for good crack dens which plague south London.

Mr Blunkett chose the Cottington Close Tenants Management Co-operative in Kennington for a walkabout on Wednesday to highlight the publication of a White Paper on anti-social behaviour.

Measures in the paper include giving police powers to close down crack houses within 48 hours and then seal them up to stop them being a blight on the local community.

The lengthy process of closing down crack houses has proven a problem in south London.

In the case of Robin Reid - father of shoe bomber Richard Reid - it took Lambeth council months to evict him from his squalid Streatham flat which doubled up as a drugs den.

Statistics recently released by Lambeth show an open crack house can lead to an increase in crime in the surrounding area.

Mr Blunkett told the South London Press: "Police have been doing quite a good job but they have not had enough power to close and seal them.

"Under the new power, within 48 hours they can seal off a place and make sure people cannot reopen it again." Last year, Lambeth cops and the local authority launched a blitz on crack cocaine. It saw the number of crack raids soar to 12 per week.

Superintendent Jerry Savill, who led the police side of the initiative, has welcomed this week's announcement.

He said: "In cases where the premises are squatted it is easier but if it is a lawful tenant, eviction proceedings can get locked up in the county courts for two or three months.

Anything that will help use to bring a definitive closure to crack houses more quickly, we will whole-heartedly support." The plan for new powers to deal with crack houses forms part of a raft of measures to combat nuisance behaviour.

There will be fines of up to £80 for yobs as young as 16 and, if a family is completely dysfunctional and unwilling to accept help, children could be taken into foster care to break the cycle. Plans to tackle begging have also been included.

The measures were announced to the House of Commons on Wednesday, hours after Mr Blunkett's visit to the Kennington estate. A bill is expected to go to Parliament within weeks.

During his visit, Mr Blunkett said: "It is saying we will give support and backing to those who want to do something about their behaviour and other people's, but we will provide enforcement powers so people can change the world around them.

"People on an estate in Lambeth have changed the world around them and with greater powers they will be able to do a better job."

This is a bit of a crusade for me because I was brought up on the council estates I now represent." During the visit, Mr Blunkett highlighted the Cottington Close Tenants Management Co-Operative as an example of what can be done.

He said: "We will be reinforcing what has gone on on this estate. I am very impressed with what they have done because a lot of it they have done themselves. "Instead of putting cash into cleaning up, they have been putting cash into preventing things happening in the first place." Manager Barry Crawford was pleased the estate had been chosen for the Home Secretary's visit.

He said: "It was a lovely surprise when we knew he was coming." Joan Light, chair of the management committee, added: "I have lived on the estate for 45 years and there were times we used to despair of getting anything done.

"But there has been a real difference and the estate has been turned around." But Simon Hughes, Home Affairs spokesman and London Mayoral candidate for the Lib Dems, was not impressed by the new measures.

He said: "This looks like an attempt to distract the public from the continuing failures of six years of New Labour, rather than a coherent development of successful existing law and order policy."

* AIR guns and replicas will be banned from public places, and illegal possession or use of a firearm will be punished by a minimum five-year jail sentence.

* A 13-YEAR-OLD girl has been given the first interim Anti-Social Behaviour Order by Southwark council. The interim order was made at Camberwell Magistrates' Court on Monday to protect the alleged victims, witnesses and community from the girl before full court proceedings.

Under the order, she is not allowed to contact witnesses, behave in an anti-social way in Southwark, or enter three zones in the north of the borough.

(posted 7685 days ago)

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