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Victoria Avenue
Knife attack on Victoria Rec.
Photo credit:
jaxxon Young man walking alone after midnight threatened and cut.
News of the attack has angered residents living next to the park in Victoria Avenue who had been campaigning to Kingston Council to lock the park gates at night for more than a decade.
They had endured recurrent problems with antisocial behaviour and crime in the park, including the mugging of a dog walker in March 2007 and an attack on a woman who was followed by a stranger a few years before.
After complaints about crime and disorder in the 1990s, the council tried locking the gates at night, but this lead to the locks being broken, fence panels pulled down and people climbing over anyway.
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Comments
How about we start getting tough on the little pieces of #### that are committing the crimes, rather than making half-hearted attempts to stop them committing them "in my back yard".
I live very near the victoria rec and attended the meeting at which the locking of the gates was proposed. The result of that meeting was that the pathetic, blind, ill-educated and downright negligent incumbent liberal councillors chose to do nothing about the problem. Either they are happy with the problem or they don't live here and, therefore, don't care!
However, that aside, the solution to the problem is at the source, not at the end. Perhaps the idiot that we call "our leader" wants to do something about the problem? Probably not. He's too busy commenting on celebrity issues to do anything but turn a blind eye to such a trivial issue as people being attacked in their own neighbourhood. Perhaps Curtis Sliwa could offer us some advice on how to handle the problem as nobody else seems interested!?
Hello Plutus,
As I live in Victoria Avenue I also attended that meeting you mentioned. I spoke with one of the councillors afterwards. It was clear that no matter what was suggested those who wanted to cause anti-social behaviour or commit crimes would do so regardless of the gates being open or closed at night. From what I gather the Metropolitan and Surrey police share patrol duties of the Victoria Rec. I for one will contact the local ward councillors again to raise the concerns of the local residents. The solution would appear obvious, but somehow i don't think it will be that easy. As for Curtis Sliwa he most probably would have advice, but in other areas that type of solution has led to masked vigilantes patroling the streets of their area. This is NOT the solution....
That is interesting Leslie. I wonder if the split responsibility between the forces leads to this park being under-patrolled. It does seem strange that there is so much trouble here compared to other local parks - it is hardly in a rough part of town! It is quite close to the YMCA and the council area of Long Ditton I guess.
I suppose it is relatively cut-off for this type of area, so that probably does not help.
I wouldn't think it was under-patrolled, although there must be times when other incidents could prevent a regular patrol of the park. I intend to speak with the police about this tomorrow and see if they will give any other information.
What a load of twaddle is being spoken about this. There have been know problems there for some time. Shut the gates when it gets dark. Get Police to patrol regularly and arrest people who break in and cause damage, also start 'stop and search' operations in the area. Temporary CCTV is fairly cheap. Bring back park keepers.
Local residents shouldn't accept the "can't do anything" approach from the local police and the council. It is this inaction that makes these problems worse.
This is a disgrace. Can you imagine the uproar if something like this had happened in Surbiton 10 years ago?
Unfortunately, the standard reply now will be " Just think yourself lucky that you don't live in Croydon/Mitcham/Wimbledon etc where this sort of thing happens all the time."
This is how this sort of thing spreads and becomes the norm. Soon, people won't bat an eyelid when someone get shot in the middle of the day in some outyling little village.
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