Safer Neighbourhoods in Crisis

12.16.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 4th Sep 2007

Wardens and PCSOs have been cut under Labour

Labour's Safer Neighbourhoods initiative is having a rocky ride in Lambeth, according to opposition Liberal Democrats. Safer Neighbourhoods were supposed to create improved working between the police and local communities, prioritising the fight against crime and giving residents a strong voice.

One of the key pledges was that police allocated to Safer Neighbourhoods Teams would be employed full time in the area and not drafted onto other duties except for emergency and terrorism attacks.

However, it has come to light that in Lambeth Safer Neighbourhood's Teams have been used routinely to supplement regular policing priorities and have even been used to run police station front desks. Officers have been used recently for the Heathrow Expansion Protest and the annual Notting Hill Carnival.

In Lambeth where Council-run Crime Wardens have now been abolished, including the South Bank Wardens which were paid for by Section 106 Planning Funding streams and the soon-to-be-made-redundant Streatham Housing Estate Rangers, Safer Neighbourhoods teams, against a background of soaring violent crime, are now struggling to cope with the demands made on them.

At community level, many parts of the borough are failing even to make Safer Neighbourhood's panels operate at a basic level, and in those areas where they do work, alarm has been raised by the Council's unreasonable expectations that they undertake a much broader range of work with partners such as the Primary Care Trust. Lambeth also wants to devolve many of the functions of the former Area Committees as Labour rapidly dismantles the Town Centre model.

Councillor Darren Sanders said, "This is a classic example of Mission-Creep and trying to offload Council responsibilities onto unpaid volunteers. There are limits to what residents can be expected do and it is leading to resignations. People signed-up to this because they wanted to reduce crime and the fear of crime in their area. Now they're being treated like unpaid skivvies."

Councillor Sanders also said, "All the way along the line Labour has both oversold and under-resourced this key public safety initiative. They have talked-up PCSO's but there is only one per ward. Full-time Safer Neighbourhood's Police are being diverted to other duties so they are not being effective or high-profile in your local area. There is complete muddle over roles and concern that resident panels are either overloaded or unrepresentative."

Cllr Sanders added, "I am loathe to say that this is an utter shambles but it comes pretty close."