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| Storm over A1 ‘spruce-up’
cash |
‘Spend this money fighting
knife crime’ call
A FLAGSHIP Town Hall regeneration project has come under fire
from critics who say the money should be diverted to combating rising
knife crime.
Labour councillors want the £1 million being spent on the
A1 Borough scheme to be used to pay for extra police.
Islington has six Safer Neighbourhoods police teams operating in
seven of the borough’s 16 wards.
The teams are funded through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.
But Labour councillors this week claimed that money from this fund
is also being spent on “sprucing up” Upper Street.
They argue that in neighbouring Hackney and Tower Hamlets the councils
there fund extra Safer Neighbourhoods teams.
Tower Hamlets and Hackney have opted to spend the government’s
Neighbourhood Renewal Fund money on additional police teams until
the Home Office picks up the tab in 2008.
But Town Hall Lib Dem leader Councillor Steve Hitchins said this
week that there were “very clear” instructions from government
on how the cash can be spent.
He added: “It’s not our money and all decisions have to
go through the Islington Strategic Partnership.
“We have already spent £2 million on policing in Islington.
In two weeks we will be taking delivery of a state-of-the-art CCTV
unit. All decisions on policing in Islington have been made at the
suggestion of the borough commander.
“Crime is one issue and liveability is another. We have a range
of ‘floor targets’ on which we have to deliver and which
are set by government.
“The A1 Borough is about far more than hanging baskets, it’s
about projects that change people’s lives.”
Councillor Lisa Spall, Labour’s youth and community safety
spokeswoman, said: “A greater uniformed police presence on
the streets is a great reassurance for law-abiding citizens, and
a deterrent to those who want to make our lives a misery.
“Other councils in London have already paid for extra police
teams using money from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.
“In Islington, however, the Lib Dems have committed a large
slice of this cash on the A1 Borough project, sprucing up Holloway
Road and Upper Street.”
The Safe Neighbourhoods police teams each consist of a sergeant,
two constables and three or more police community support officers.
They were initially seconded to wards with higher than average crime
rates.
The government wants every ward in the country to have a team by
2008.
A recent £63,000 cut in Islington’s community safety
budget meant the loss of two extra British Transport Police officers
who had been based in Finsbury Park. |
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