Crime falls again - but what impact will Youth Club cuts have?
Crime dropped markedly in January as forecast in my last monthly report. Not only is the crime rate down compared with last month's figures, which included the unfortunate but typical surge in the run-up to Christmas, but in four of our six council wards crime is down on the figures up to November 2007 - the last broadly comparable month.
East Putney, Roehampton, Thamesfield and West Hill all saw crime drop - Southfields continues to seesaw, presumably largely dependent on the numbers of crimes committed in the Southside shopping centre which is in the ward. West Putney experienced a small rise on November, though this is explained more by November's figures being unusually good for this ward.
But my big concern as we move into the new financial year is the closure of the Putney Vale Youth Club in Roehampton and other borough youth clubs by the Conservative Council.
Most criminologists acknowledge that nuisance crimes increase when kids have nothing to divert their attention - that's not to say that most teenagers are criminals or yobs, but given no alternative, creative or recreational occupation for their time, there will be more kids on the streets and trouble will find some of them.
That's why the Tory Council's closure of youth clubs is so damaging and they should rethink things urgently. The Council meeting next Wednesday is the last chance for councillors to come to their senses and reverse these damaging closure plans. We've got to keep our youth clubs open - if anything we should be increasing youth service provision as Labour's London Mayor Ken Livingstone is committed to doing.
It's important that we don't see youth service provision solely through the prism of keeping crime down: youth clubs provide invaluable training, recreational, socialising and educational opportunities for young people - in the case of Putney Vale in the most deprived community in the whole constituency; and they reach teenagers who schools can't always reach.
The Conservatives' closure plans are just more of the short-sighted stupidity that's come to typify this Council's approach to any service that actually costs them something to provide.
Here's the chart of the 12 months to February:
And here's the comparable 12 months to January:
East Putney, Roehampton, Thamesfield and West Hill all saw crime drop - Southfields continues to seesaw, presumably largely dependent on the numbers of crimes committed in the Southside shopping centre which is in the ward. West Putney experienced a small rise on November, though this is explained more by November's figures being unusually good for this ward.
But my big concern as we move into the new financial year is the closure of the Putney Vale Youth Club in Roehampton and other borough youth clubs by the Conservative Council.
Most criminologists acknowledge that nuisance crimes increase when kids have nothing to divert their attention - that's not to say that most teenagers are criminals or yobs, but given no alternative, creative or recreational occupation for their time, there will be more kids on the streets and trouble will find some of them.
That's why the Tory Council's closure of youth clubs is so damaging and they should rethink things urgently. The Council meeting next Wednesday is the last chance for councillors to come to their senses and reverse these damaging closure plans. We've got to keep our youth clubs open - if anything we should be increasing youth service provision as Labour's London Mayor Ken Livingstone is committed to doing.
It's important that we don't see youth service provision solely through the prism of keeping crime down: youth clubs provide invaluable training, recreational, socialising and educational opportunities for young people - in the case of Putney Vale in the most deprived community in the whole constituency; and they reach teenagers who schools can't always reach.
The Conservatives' closure plans are just more of the short-sighted stupidity that's come to typify this Council's approach to any service that actually costs them something to provide.
Here's the chart of the 12 months to February:
And here's the comparable 12 months to January:
Labels: crime stats, East Putney, policing and crime, Roehampton, Southfields, Thamesfield, West Hill, West Putney
posted by Stuart King at
00:10
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