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| NEWS | By RICHARD OSLEY and KIM JANSSEN |
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A CHRISTMAS curfew across south Camden means teenagers will have to spend the evenings throughout the holiday season indoors. Camden Council and police have mapped out a new ‘dispersal zone’ – a 9pm curfew area for youths branded troublemakers by police – across Somers Town, the Regent's Park estate and the fringes of Camden Town. The zone will come into effect on December 1 and run into the New Year. It gives police the power to split up groups of teenagers gathering on street corners and send under-16s home. Youths from outside the borough face 24-hour bans while repeat offenders could end-up with fines of up to £2,500 or three-month jail terms. A compulsory advert placed by Superintendent Gordon Allan in today’s (Thursday’s) New Journal says: “If you are under 16 you may not be allowed to be here between the hours of 9pm and 6am unless you are under the effective control of a parent or a responsible person over the age of 18.” Camden Council has agreed to the zone after branding a similar measure in Somers Town over the summer a success. As the New Journal reported earlier this month, crime in Somers Town has increased since the initial three-month scheme came to an end. On several occasions cyclists have been knocked off their bikes and beaten. Community safety chief Councillor Anna Stewart said: “Residents in Somers Town and Regent’s Park are calling for these extra powers to help the police curb serious anti-social behaviour in the area. Camden Council has responded by authorising these powers that really helped to cut down crime over the summer months.” Supt Allan added: “The power will be used sensitively and only when necessary. This activity will not be to the detriment of normal policing, and we shall be alert to any incidence of displacement, which will be promptly addressed.” Crime czar Anthony Brooks, a former police chief, gave consent to the scheme without the need to go to the full council meeting. Councillor Anna Stewart, the elected member in charge of such decisions, previously resisted calls from opposition councillors to take full responsibility – a move that has irritated Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Flick Rea. Cllr Rea said: “We made a suggestion that these dispersal area notices should be signed off by the member for community safety and not an unelected officer. “Mr Brooks is a very experienced ex-policeman but this shouldn’t be signed off by someone who isn’t directly accountable to the public.” Tory leader Piers Wauchope added: “It’s nit-picking but we would ask why the dispersal zone has to be so big and how it is worked out.” Liz Wheatley, who stood for the London Assembly for Camden Respect this summer, said: “I don’t think this is a good way to go – there are better ways of dealing with the problems on estates. “We should be looking at youth schemes that young people are actually interested in taking part in, and the overcrowded conditions that people live in. “New labour has always talked about being ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’, but it ought to do more about the causes of crime.” |
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