12th June 2008

 

Hello again, its been a while since my last blog, so heres the latest news from Edgware........

 

The Safe Depository Centre on The High Street was the subject of a Police operation over the last 10 days. This was part of a wider operation around London and involved the seizure of assets from criminal organisations. During this incident, Manor Park Crescent has been closed at the junction with the High Street and temporary barriers erected. Armed Police have been on scene for the duration of the operation. I appreciate there will be concern within the local community about legitimate assets being seized, however to claim your property back then please call 0800 030 4613 (8am to 8pm) to make arrangements.

 

Two knife arch operations have been held in Edgware Tube and Bus Stations in the last month. These operations are targeted towards those individuals who choose to carry knives and other weapons on the transport networks. I would like to thank the community for their patience and good humour in relation to any delays these operations caused, however I'm sure everyone would agree that public safety is of paramount importance, and to that end, there will be further similar operations in and around Edgware in the future. We will do everything we can to eradicate the menace of violent crime within our community.

 

We held our second annual football tournament in Edgwarebury Park last Sunday afternoon. Targeted at youth from the Stonegrove and north Broadfields areas, this youth diversion project followed on from last year in being a great success. Seven 6-a-side teams took part, including one from the Edgware SNT with the eventual winners being one of the teams from the Broadfields. The event also doubled as a charity fundraiser with Cancer Research being the benefactors. I'd like to thank all those who took part in this event, but particularly, thanks to Monique and Dionne for organising everything so well and thanks also to Bradley I. for his efforts in arranging the charity side of things and encouraging his peers to come along. I'd also like to thank McDonalds and Clive C. from KFC who provided food for all those taking part, as well as Marks and Spencer, Sainsburys, Wyvale Garden Centres and Poundland who provided water, light refreshments and cups for the event. Thanks also go out to Homebase and the Art Shop who provided materials for the day as well as Dave at Currys Digital for provision of a prize for the best Sportsman of the tournament. Finally, thanks to the staff at Edgwarebury Park for allowing this event to take place.
PS…. Dougie C. - I have never seen anyone eat as much as you in such a short period of time!!!

 

Something I'm immensely proud of, is an event that took place a few weeks ago. The Edgware team were placed as runners up in the Safer Neighbourhood Team of the year awards for 2007. There are 625 teams in London so it was a great achievement for the team. We attended New Scotland Yard and received our award from Assistant Commissioner Tim Godwin. I'd like to take the opportunity to say well done to the team for their tremendous efforts throughout 2007 and also thank the ward panel and the local community for their efforts in assisting us. Together we really do make a difference.

 

We've also held a ward panel meeting since the last blog. The news from this is that the panel changed one of our priorities. We now include youth diversion as our youth priority. The football tournament mentioned above is part of our efforts in this area and more activities will follow throughout the summer.

 

We're working closely with Barnet Homes in the Stonegrove Estate area in relation to the control of dogs. We have also implemented the BARK initiative in conjunction with Barnet Homes and will be working closely with the community there to reduce incidents of dogs running around off the lead.

 

I attended the Church Way Neighbourhood Watch meeting recently and was heartened to see the large turn out of local people. Thanks to Peter D. for the invite, it was great to see NHW really working. Should anyone else like to join or start up a Neighbour Hood Watch then please get in touch and we'll assist you as best we can.

 

I'm keen to try and get some pictures onto the site, so hopefully, pretty soon we'll have posted some galleries up for you to see what we're up to in and around Edgware. If you have any issues or comments about the Edgware Team, then please feel free to get in touch.

 

Till next time

Sgt Dan

 

 

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15th April 2008

 

Welcome to the latest blog...

 

A bit of sad news for the team to start with. PC Mike Paton (or "Scottish" as the local kids call him) has now left the team and moved to another department at Colindale Police Station. I'd like to pass on our best wishes to Mike who has worked tremendously hard over the last two and a half years here in Edgware and wish him all the best for the future. You'll be missed! To temper this news however, I'm glad to say that PC Steve Garty has now moved to Edgware from the Oakleigh SNT. We're very lucky to have secured Steve's transfer, hopefully you'll get to meet him as he's out and about on patrols.

 

Our new Police Contact Point is up and running and proving quite popular. In the Mall every Tuesday afternoon between 12 noon and 5.30pm, take the opportunity to come and have a chat about local issues or fill in a brief questionnaire about the area.

 

We've held a couple of public meetings / street briefings since the last blog, one in the Wolmer Gardens area and one in the Stonegrove Estate area. I'm hopeful that a new neighbourhood watch scheme will be starting soon off the back of the Wolmer Gardens briefing and would like to thank everyone who came out on a cold night to listen to what I had to say. Parking issues in and around Green Lane seem to be a major talking point in the Stonegrove area, along with dogs off leads and youth facilities. We are following these points up and I'll update you with any progress in future reports.

 

We had a major event in Edgware a few weeks ago, with a scooter rally taking place.... starting at Hyde Park Corner in central London before finishing at the Royal British Legion in Parnell Close. This event had caused some issues in 2007 when it took place, so this year the Edgware and Hale SNT's worked in tandem to police the event. I'd estimate around 400 scooters were ridden around the Broadfields area to get to Parnell Close, and I'm glad to say that everyone seemed to have a good time and that there were no anti-social behaviour or noise nuisance problems reported at all. Well done to the organisers of the event as well as all those involved in policing the area.

 

Another large public event was the Walk of Witness, a large Church march that took place on Palm Sunday along Station Road and the High Street and ended up in the commuters' car park at the Mall. There were around 500 people taking part in the march, with live music and also a donkey involved. It was a tremendous occasion which included the congregations of many local Churches, and once again I'd like to say well done to the organisers for planning a great event. The culmination of the event was a mass donation of Easter eggs to the Mall's Easter egg appeal, and upon counting them, over 400 eggs were donated. These were subsequently given out to patients in the children's ward at Barnet General Hospital.

 

The team also provided dedicated patrols during the festival of Purim, supporting the Jewish community in the area. These extra patrols augmented our existing Sabbath patrols and I'm glad to say that no incidents were reported in the Edgware area during the festival period and everyone seems to have had a great time.

 

A toddler walk took place for charity a couple of weeks ago, from the Mall up to McDonalds at Cannons Corner. We provided a couple of officers to escort the group on its journey and apart from the weather, things went very well.

 

We held a ward panel meeting in March. The panel decided to keep our priorities unchanged. Our four big issues are (1) pick pocketing offences in the Station Road shopping area, (2) fear of crime in the Station Road area, (3) anti-social behaviour (ASB) and drug dealing in the Stonegrove Estate area and (4) ASB and drug dealing in the Glengall Road area. In relation to these issues, it would be fair to say that we are still getting too many pick pocket incidents in the shopping centre, whilst the ASB issues in Glengall Road seem to be moving back up towards Cromarty Road and Pentland Avenue.

 

We also held a Jewish community forum at Yeshurun. We hold these meetings twice a year and invite representatives from all local Synagogues, Jewish Schools as well as partner agencies to talk about issues surrounding the Jewish community. Thanks to Cllr Brian Gordon for organising this event.

 

In relation to crime figures, I've been researching this and found that since the Edgware team have been in place, reported crime has dropped for the third year in a row on Edgware ward. In our three years of existence, crime dropped 10% in the first year, then 12% the second year followed by 6% last year. Overall, that's a reduction of over 500 crimes a year in Edgware ward. Now I appreciate that probably not everyone reports crime, and that we all get suspicious about figures, however, I think we have made some real inroads since we first came to Edgware. Hopefully we can maintain these figures again this year.

 

Holly, Mike and Steve have all been busy making a fair number of arrests since I last made a report here, and while I can't be entirely specific, I can say that we've had a couple of robbery and burglary suspects in as well as people who have stolen lead sheets from roofs of houses in the area.

 

I'm also hopeful, that following some chasing up by the local Ward Councillors, the mirrors will be going up next week in the dogleg sections of Bakery Path.

 

One last topic of conversation before I go.... I'm hoping that in the next few months we will undertake a major project in conjunction with the London Academy, Barnet Homes, Stonegrove Residents Association and McDonalds, to decorate or (my new favourite word) "muralise" the building site hoardings around the regeneration areas on Spur Road.

 

Anyhow, until next time

Sgt Dan

 

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28th February 2008

 

Hello again and welcome to my latest blog

 

We made the local papers last week, with a story in the Barnet Press about this web site. We've received a lot of positive feedback about the site and I'm glad to say that more and more local residents are logging on and finding out about what we do. We're also receiving enquiries from neighbouring teams about setting their own web sites up, I'm glad to say that we seem to have started a ball rolling.........

 

Through a sponsorship deal with The Mall Edgware, we are now the proud new owners of a corporate exhibition stand. The design of the stand has been tailored to the Edgware area and will hopefully increase our public profile at our Police contact point. With the advent of this new stand, we will also be increasing the number of contact points / surgeries that we hold, so you should now find us in The Mall, every Tuesday between 12 noon and 5.30pm. I'm also hoping that we can extend this to incorporate surgeries on the Stonegrove Estate soon.

 

I'm pleased to tell you that PCSO Craig Hyder has returned to the Edgware team following a 3 month attachment on the Mill Hill team. We're very pleased to have him back... its been far too quiet without him...

 

I'm also very pleased to announce that PCSO Wayne Mercer has successfully applied to become a Police Officer. Its sad that he'll be leaving us, but fantastic that he's coming back to Barnet to work as a PC.... you never know... he might come back and work on the Edgware Team in the future... we wish him all the best...

 

There was a bit of disorder in the last couple of weeks centred around the local pubs. Extra patrols were posted on Friday and Saturday evenings and things quietened down very quickly. This is something we're keeping a close eye on.

 

We assisted the Barnet Safer Transport Team last week on an operation at Edgware Tube Station. A passive drugs dog and knife arch were utilised to check people travelling through the area. Several people were arrested as a result. Hopefully we'll be able to carry out operations like this on a regular basis.

 

We've had an update from the local ward Councillors in relation to the queries raised about Bakery Path (7th February Blog). Requests have been made for the trees to be cut back along the path - to assist CCTV, and the mirrors for the "dog-leg" corners are on order and should be turning up soon. Thanks to Councillor Scannell for chasing this up for us.

 

If you have any issues or just want to have a chat about the local area and its Policing, then please get in touch,

 

Speak soon
Sgt Dan

 

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7th February 2008

Hello again and welcome to my latest blog.

We held a street briefing this evening for the residents of Brook Avenue and St. Margarets Road. The main points of concern from the residents in this area related to Bakery Path. Requests were made to seek assistance from the Local Authority to put mirrors up in the corners of the "dog leg" of this alleyway, to reduce the fear of crime for people walking through. Further requests made to ask for the CCTV coverage to be increased at this location, as the existing camera cannot see the section that runs down to St. Margarets Road. Thank you to all those who attended, it was nice to meet you all.

 

I also attended the Stonegrove Estate Community meeting tonight. The main issues in relation to Policing again concerned the residents' grave concerns over dogs running loose around the estate area. Mention was made of dog fighting and attacks on other dogs, as well as the dog attack in Hendon last week, where a young lady was savaged by a dog being walked off the lead. I did pass on my assurances that as a Police Service, we are liaising with the Local Authority and talking about Dog Control Orders ("DCOs") and the possibility of them being introduced locally. These orders would make it an offence, for someone to walk a dog off the lead in a designated area. My suggestion is that high-density housing estates should be made designated areas where the DCOs can be enforced. The Police and Police Community Support Officers ("PCSOs") would then have a power to issue fixed penalty notices to owners / people in charge of dogs who commit an offence. This would be a proportionate and measured response to the increasing dog attacks and provide a level of public safety in areas of multiple dwellings such as the Stonegrove Estate.

 

We Policed a Torah Scroll procession on Sunday 3rd Feb, along Edgwarebury Lane and over the A41. It was great to be able to assist with this event, and I'd like to thank my colleagues from the Special Constabulary who also came along and assisted.

 

We are currently working with St. Margarets Church along with other Churches in the Edgware, Burnt Oak and Colindale areas and are assisting in the planning of a large march on Palm Sunday 16th March. We will be policing this event, which will move along Station Road and finish in the Broadwalk car park. It was a great community event last year and it promises to be bigger and better this year, with a walking band and also a donkey being included this year. If you'd like to know more about this event, or would like to join in on the day, then please contact St. Margarets Church or myself for more information.

 

The regular Police surgery was held on Tuesday last, in the Mall. Not much to mention regarding requests from the public, however we are hoping to be in possession of a new corporate stand by the beginning of March, which will make us much more visible and more user friendly.

 

There have been a few incidents of disorder over the last week or so, and we have made a number of arrests and other interventions, including the issuing of on the spot fines for people urinating in shop doorways along Station Road. I can't really go into details, however, I would like to say that our job is to make Edgware a safer environment for everybody who comes through it. We have made some significant arrests recently in relation to public safety.

 

If you have any concerns or issues, then please get in touch and we'll do our best to assist you.

 

Until next time, regards to all,

Sgt Dan

 

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24th January 2008

Hello, welcome to my inaugural blog. I hope you like the EWP site, its a completely new idea for us on the Edgware team, and I'd like to say thanks to the ward panel and in particular Laurence, for setting it all up. I will try and keep this page updated throughout the next year to let you know what's been happening around the Edgware ward.

 

As part of our ongoing attempts at providing youth activities around the ward, we have secured the use of the Rolling Base mobile youth club fortnightly in the Stonegrove Estate and also fortnightly in the Cromarty Road area. This unit is a single decker bus which has been turned into a youth club, fully equipped with its own music mixing equipment, video games, music videos and more. The young people in these areas have provided positive feedback about its presence, and although we have agreed usage until April , we are hopeful that funding will be found to keep it in these areas throughout 2008. If you want to pop along to see the Rolling Base, its every other Tuesday (7pm - 9pm) in the Stonegrove (next one is 5th Feb) and every other Friday (6.30pm - 8.30pm) in Cromarty Road (next one is 25th Jan)

 

The latest pubwatch meeting took place last week, with all pubs in the Edgware, Burnt Oak, Edgware (Harrow), Canons (Harrow) and Colindale wards taking part, this scheme has made real inroads into dealing with problem customers who have threatened or used violence, or been involved in criminal activities in these venues. A large number of individuals have been banned from the pubs in the watch, and this has assisted in less trouble being reported generally in these establishments. If you're barred from one, then you're barred from all. An update from the pubwatch is that agreement is being sought to take on the barred lists from the Mill Hill and Hale pubwatch alongside our own..... watch this space for updates...

 

A meeting was held for Glengall Road residents last night, with the major topic of conversation being concerns over a Scooter club event being held on March 9th. This is advertised on the Internet and states the venue will be the British Legion. This is an update as the venue was shown as the Sparrow Pub last week. The corresponding event last year caused serious nuisance to local residents in the area around the Sparrow. A pledge was made at the meeting last night that both the Edgware and Hale SNT's will be on duty on March 9th to deal with any issues on the day.

 

I'm pleased to let you know that the Edgware SNT were put forward by Barnet Borough Police as their entry for the best SNT in London. We were awarded the runners up spot. I'd like to thank the team for all their hard work over the last year, its a tremendous accolade for them and to finish 2nd out of 312 teams in North London and also be in the top 4 Met wide is a great achievement.

 

I have tried to plan out all our public meetings for the coming year to give people notice of when and where they will be. Please take a look at the public surgeries and meetings page to see the list. As well as meetings, we will also be holding Surgeries for the public to come and have a chat and list any issues or concerns they may have. Currently, we hold a surgery in the Broadwalk on the first Tuesday of every month between 9am and 4pm, however, we will be upgrading this in the next month or so and will hopefully be holding the Broadwalk surgery once a week.... but watch this space and I'll confirm the details.

 

A lot of our issues in Edgware relate to drug use. Two of our problem areas (PSP's) set by the ward panel relate to us tackling anti social behaviour and drug dealing in the Stonegrove Estate and Glengall Road areas. As a brief update on these issues, I am pleased to let you know that in the last two months, six search warrants have been executed in these areas, quantities of drugs have been seized along with a hand gun at one location and a number of people have been arrested for drugs and firearms offences.

 

Dog offences are starting to become more apparent also. In recent months, dogs being walked off leads in the Stonegrove Estate area have killed another dog (whilst it was being walked on a lead) and also two cats. We have also received many reports of dogs fighting and being out of control in the same area. We are working closely with Barnet Homes to try and convince the local authority to enforce existing legislation "s.55 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005" which will allow the SNT's to tackle this issue by issuing on the spot fines to people walking their dogs off leads in designated areas. My main concern is that we nip this trend in the bud before something more serious occurs. I'll keep you updated with any movement in this issue, but in the meantime please feel free to convey your thoughts to myself or your ward councillors.

 

That's all for now,
Regards to all

Sgt Dan