Councillors Help Improve Security at Sidmouth House
Your Bryanston and Dorset Square Councillors have acted to protect the residents of Sidmouth House in Cato Street, after reports of extreme anti-social behaviour within the building. The communal stairs and landings of this block had been taken over by assorted drug-addicts and rough-sleepers, simply because of poor front-door security: it was just too easy to enter the building, and once in, to set up camp. City-West Homes acted to supply new security-cameras and to part-fund new security-doors, but there was a funding short-fall on the doors. We were pleased to allocate £3,687 from our Ward Budget, so that the new doors could be installed.
From the 1960’s date of construction, the original doors at Sidmouth House had always been insecure, so that the residents had put up with a creeping loss of security for years, up to the point where all sorts of strangers had access to the building. With the help of City-West Homes, your Councillors have been able to restore responsibility for access to the building to the residents. This case is a reminder to us all, to be extremely vigilant at the street-front-door of a multi-occupied building. Whether you are walking in or out, please - before you walk away - be sure that the street-front-door has closed behind you, - just as you would be, if that shared front-door were the door to your own flat.
Action Taken to Crack Down on Rubbish Dumping
In the last two months, your Councillors have been out and about, in person, with our City Inspectors, checking the compliance with Westminster Council’s refuse-collection arrangements. Residents in Park Road, NW1 have been plagued for the best part of a year by a single inconsiderate neighbour, whose tenants put out their black-bag rubbish at any old time, and whose example has been catching, so that a couple of other neighbours have dumped rubbish at any-old-time as well. Three Penalty Notices have been issued recently to these offenders, since when the offences have diminished. We’re working with the council to take action against other households similarly taking advantage of the refuse collection arrangements.
If you know of anyone in your locality who is abusing our refuse collection arrangements, please let us know via the Westminster website: www.westminster.gov.uk/report.it
Multi-Agency Clean-Up on Edgware Road
Local residents may have been surprised by the number of uniformed police-officers in and around Edgware Road in recent weeks. They have been working alongside your Westminster Council officers, especially our City Inspectors, to clamp down on a range of illegal activities: specifically, (for the police), human-trafficking, drugs and sexual exploitation; while our City Inspectors have picked up a large number of people involved in connected-but-lesser offences, such as begging and flower-selling. In March/April 2016, Westminster Council Officers issued fifty-four Enforcement Notices against professional beggars and flower-sellers who were breaking the law. These operations have not only cleaned up abuses in and around Edgware Road, but have resulted in the dispersal of rough-sleepers from Bryanston and Dorset Square Ward in general.
These operations are intelligence-led. Please write to us if you see something in our neighbourhood that makes you uneasy; or phone the non-emergency number 101 and report your concerns.