Notes from 8th August
Keeping Our Community Safe: A meeting with Senior Police Officers
Thursday 8 August, 7pm
Commonside New Horizon Centre, South Lodge Avenue, Mitcham, CR4 1LT
Organised by Siobhain McDonagh MP
The meeting was called by Dame Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden as a result of the worrying increase in gang-related violence in the Pollards Hill area. Also at the meeting were Inspector Kevin Chambers (Safer Neighbourhoods in Merton with responsibility for Mitcham area), Sergeant James Peppitt, (Pollards Hill and Cricket Green wards), PCs Adam and Dave (dedicated Pollards Hill Officers), former PCSO for Pollards Hill ‘JJ’ , PC Mark Towler, the Met’s Youth Engagement and Diversionary Officer for Merton, Naomi Martin, CEO of Commonside Trust in the New Horizon Centre, officers from Moat Homes, from Merton Council’s Detached and Youth Services, two local councillors – Aidan Mundy and Martin Whelton – Pastor Deji Ajorinde from Pollards Hill Baptist Church, two GPs from Wideway Medical Centre, the Community Health and Wellbeing Champion for Pollards Hill Moat estate, Dee Morris, and representatives from Unique Talent Youth Project and Merton Connected.
Members of the public were invited to talk to any of the people on the list above after the meeting to discuss matters further.
The meeting began with a minute’s silence to mark the second anniversary of the gas explosion on Galpins Road (8th August 2022) and the tragic death of three-year-old Zahara. The MP also sent her best wishes for the ongoing recovery of Elaine who had suffered burns in the explosion and to all who had lost their homes and suffered damage and trauma in the explosion.
The MP also thanked Naomi and her staff team for the use of the Main Hall in the New Horizon Centre and Pastor Deji for his technical assistance with the PA system. The MP’s own team – made up of councillors and volunteers – provided teas and coffees from the kitchen.
There were short speeches from Inspector Kevin Chambers and James Peppitt who outlined the main events that had led to increased concern for public safety in Pollards Hill, including the moped and machete incident of 14th July that many people had seen a part of on social media. The increase in such incidents had started in March 2024 and was ongoing. All reported incidents had been or were still being investigated and the police would keep members of the public updated as much as possible.
These events were catalogued as part of the local Impact Assessment for which Sergeant Peppitt was responsible. Young people in Merton, Croydon and Lambeth were involved in the crimes and were also the victims. The criminality was often but not always linked to drug dealing. Sgt Peppitt explained that the Impact Assessment would always benefit from input from members of the public as they were in the area all the time and had a much more detailed view of what was happening. He would therefore welcome comments and feedback. Both Inspector Chambers and Sgt Peppitt were keen to point out that working in mutually respectful partnership with everyone living and working in Pollards Hill was really important and that they were aware that there was a lot of work to do, including building trust.
Because of the nature of the incidents, police officers from Merton were meeting regularly with officers from Croydon and Lambeth to share intelligence and jointly tackle the problems. This had produced good results to date – including warrants issued, arrests and seizure of weapons, firearms, drugs and cash proceeds of crime.
Members of the audience were invited to look at the contents of the police packs on their chairs and respond to the questionnaire to help rate how safe or not they were feeling, and also to provide contact details if they wanted to stay in touch eg to find out more about the Ward Panel and other measures.
The floor was then opened for questions and the following is a summary of the areas covered and the answers given.
Local residents very much welcomed the Pollards Hill Police Base building being used by Safer Neighbourhood Officers and wanted to see a helpful police presence there as much as possible. The SN Team officers would not always be able to be in Pollards Hill but a commitment was made to ensure they were there as much as possible, that they would walk around the ward and would work hard to develop relationships of trust with local people, especially with young people.
A Community Panel had been set up, comprising representatives of the local agencies listed at the start of this article, to provide detail for the Impact Assessment and to come up with proposals to improve safety in the area.
There was a particular concern about Anti-Social Behaviour and general disruption and distress caused by the unregulated expansion in the number of Houses of Multiple Occupation on the Moat estate. A commitment from Moat officers was given that they were working with Merton Council to improve this situation and they added that they would welcome information as to where the HMOs were in order to have an accurate picture. The MP also gave an explanation as to how the situation with unfettered expansion of sometimes irresponsible HMO landlords had come about and she explained what was being done to improve this situation. Cllr Mundy was also working on documenting where are the HMOs in the ward and would welcome information from the public.
There was general approval of the new cameras on the Pollards Hill (Moat) estate and a request that Moat keep residents informed about what they were doing.
A particular concern was the ability of mopeds, e-bikes, e-scooters and small motorbikes to race through the ward on pavements and using alleyways. This was dangerous for pedestrians and allowed criminals to make a quick escape. Colleagues from Moat agreed to look at what could be done with the help of the police, particularly in the alleyways.
Members of the public who had worked with the Neighbourhood Operations Manager from Moat had found her dedicated and helpful but did complain that in general, Moat seemed to take a long time to get things done and requested a published timeline of what was planned so that they could be held to account.
There was concern about the situation for L+Q tenants in the area. Police were aware but the situation was clearly on-going and distressing.
There was a distressing report from someone who had had to move his family to extended family in Tooting because they were continuously disturbed (on the Moat PH estate) by people knocking on doors and windows at all times of the day and night.
There was anxiety about the right-wing racist riots across the country and people wanted to know what was happening locally. Police explained that there was at present no intelligence to suggest that there would be riots in the Pollards Hill (or West Croydon) area but that no one could be 100% sure. Steps had been taken in the Met to ensure as many officers as possible were prepared to act fast if needed.
There was a comment from someone who previously lived on the ‘Wimbledon side’ of the borough where they thought it was arguably safer – that they did have police officers patrolling the streets in the West of the borough so the current arrangement didn’t really make sense.
There was a question about how police work with schools and young people and it was explained that police schools officers were active and that police officers also met monthly as a group with headteachers from all local schools. This was felt to be key in the community’s work to protect and nurture young people. Inspector Chambers also emphasised that officers were more than willing to meet groups of young people in the places where they usually go, rather than expect them to attend a meeting such as this.
The police officers confirmed that they would welcome any information about local brothels and would take action. In addition to the criminality of these places, there was always the possibility of trafficking, modern slavery etc.
The entrepreneur running Media Management London expressed his desire to work with members of the public to help young people, describing his own graphic design business and the Mitcham’s Got Talent event that would take place in October for which he was seeking volunteers and sponsors. He told the audience about the free yoga classes he organises every Friday for adults, which were now pretty popular, and expressed his frustration at how difficult it could be to persuade local funders to support his endeavours. He also felt that when he had shared his ideas with some local funders, his good ideas had been taken and someone else had got the funding.
To end the meeting, the MP called on all those who were interested in working together to make things better to leave their contact details with her and turn up to meetings that she would organise as a result of today’s meeting (maybe on Thursday afternoons once every 6-8 weeks) willing to work hard, cooperate and come up with new ideas.
Finally, PCSO JJ said that he wanted people to know about the good work that did take place every week throughout the year and that had been going on since 2015 – a police-led project with Fulham Football Foundation for which Naomi at Commonside was the executive lead. Around 70 young people attended every week, of which 80% were from Pollards Hill and recently a females group had been set up with additional funding from Merton Council. He emphasised that there was plenty of evidence that the young people who took part have progressed and that he estimated over 2,000 young people had benefitted since the project started. It received generous funding from Moat and this should be applauded. The project had even been mentioned in Hansard, thanks to a speech from the MP! He wanted people to leave this meeting with some hope and pride in their local area.
