On Monday 4th July Ruth Cadbury MP lead a debate in the House of Commons on the subject of crime and anti-social behaviour in West London. Ruth sponsored this debate to follow on from her recent crime survey, which received hundreds of responses from local residents. The new figures from this survey showed that 55% of those surveyed had been victims of crime in the last 12 months.
In a wide ranging speech Ruth spoke about the impact of anti-social behaviour and drug dealing locally, while also warning that the police and other bodies were not doing enough to support young people and keep them out of gang activity.
Ruth spoke about the need for the Met Police to rebuild trust and show a commitment to tackling crimes such as burglaries and drug dealing. She also praised the work done by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who has invested extra funding into the Met, part of which went towards a new dedicated policing team for Hounslow Town Centre.
In the second half of her speech Ruth criticised the Government for its ‘devastating’ cuts to policing in London which saw a reduction of over 2,000 officers in London, and over 70 alone in the Borough of Hounslow over the past decade. She also expressed concern that those cuts meant so much community knowledge and experience had been lost when these officers went. Ruth then warned the Governments overall lacklustre approach meant that ‘criminals were getting away it’, and called for the Government to bring back traditional neighbourhood policing with dedicated police teams patrolling the streets.
Commenting in full after her debate Ruth said,
‘‘I know from listening to residents locally that they are fed up with crime and anti-social behaviour. That’s why I made sure to lead this debate in Westminster to make sure that their concerns were heard loudly and clearly by the Government. Whether its drug dealing in plain sight, fly tipping, car thefts or violent muggings people rightly want to see more being done.
‘‘‘In my speech I made clear that the Met police needs to rebuild trust with Londoners and needs to make sure that pro-active community work is done to tackle crime locally.
‘‘‘I also made sure to raise the impact that a decade of cuts to policing and other public services has had on community safety. Cuts to policing, youth services and colleges has hit communities across Hounslow, and we are still feeling the impact today. 13 years of misrule by successive Governments has had a huge impact locally and has allowed crime to flourish. The Minister’s response to me showed that the Government still do not understand the impact that 13 years of cuts have had on community safety locally.
‘‘‘I want to reassure residents locally that I will continue to work hard to campaign to ensure that we reduce crime locally, get more police on our streets and support the victims of crime.’’