Serious Crime Soars in Lambeth

1.13.17pm GMT Wed 20th Jan 2010

Only a week after admitting that Labour has lost the war against the drug dealers in Brixton comes the chilling news that knife and gun crime is also soaring in the borough.

The Safer Lambeth Partnership - a crime reduction initiative between the police, council and other agencies - has utterly failed to reduce a wave of serious criminality in the borough and one that looks set to get even worse as the recession bites.

The use of knives actually rose to 464 offences from 418 the year before, while the use of firearms peaked at 180 last year, against the 136 offences 12 months previously. The aim of the project had been to reduce those figures.

But this is not the only grim news afflicting soaraway Lambeth as a crime hotspot. Robbery and Burglary are also up when they are meant to have come down. Robberies have rocketed to 1,628 across the borough when they should have been cut to under 1,461. Residential burglaries have increased by 31 per cent year on year with 2,089 reported against an annual target of 1,766 per annum and three months left of the full year total.

Labour politicians and the police seem powerless to reverse this surging tide of criminality despite all their grand promises and supposed increased resources.

Liberal Democrats say that people have a right to feel safe in their own homes, their children need to feel safe from knife attack in the streets and guns are far too freely available. People are entitled to expect action not words.