Frustrated residents set up Neighbourhood Watch

By Rosie Lavan

DISAPPOINTED residents of St George’s Avenue are taking action after an “ineffective” police response to a spate of burglaries in the street.

Residents have started a Neighbourhood Watch group to raise awareness of the crimes.

There have been eight burglaries in the last three months in the street, which is near Tufnell Park underground station, but police have so far not provided full statistics for the number of break-ins in this area.

Charles Milnes, 45, is a business consultant from St George’s Avenue, and a member of the Neighbourhood Watch steering committee.

He said the response to the burglaries from the local Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) had been unsatisfactory and “not massively effective”.

Milnes said that although he understood that the SNT were stretched, he believed they could have done more to help tackle this problem.

He said: “There are a lot of management and structural issues. They do their best with limited resources, but we as residents and victims of crime can never take no for an answer.

“The police need to put their problems to one side: they are not giving us the absolute practical support we need.”

The SNT was launched in January, tasked with providing targeted responses to local crime and offering residents a visible and approachable point of contact.

Milnes said that the response to the Neighbourhood Watch scheme so far had been very positive. At the first meeting, held in nearby St George’s Church, 49 households were represented, and Milnes expects that between 70 and 100 households will be represented at the next meeting, to be held in December.

Residents have identified some of the problems that they face: the street tends to be quiet during the day as many residents are at work, and burglars take advantage of the structure of the tall Victorian villas, gaining access to properties via the middle front windows.

Police acknowledged that there is a problem with burglary and car theft in St George’s Avenue and surrounding streets.

SNT Officer Andrew Cover said: “It is a hot spot for burglary and theft from motor vehicles.”

Officer Cover said he was aware of the effect that the crime was having on residents. He said there had been occasions when officers had visited the same property more than once a day because of reported burglaries and thefts.

“They [the homeowners] had just given up, they were so frustrated.”

Officer Cover said the SNT regularly patrolled St George’s Avenue and nearby streets, and knew that many of the burglars were from the local area.

“The majority of them are local people that are just passing by – opportunists – and people that know the area well.”

Leafy St George’s Avenue is one of the most desirable and expensive streets in the ward. It was home to Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell until her high-profile split from her husband David Mills earlier this year.