ASBO Ball Games

Juliet and I have received numerous reports regarding the occurrence of antisocial ball games on Chadwell streets and other streets in Redbridge. This growing social malaise is also rife within other London Boroughs and stems from a general mistrust of parks and parents who wish to monitor their children from close to the home (unfortunately of these, there are some parents that say they just dont have the time to take children to the park), at the cost of subjecting their children to the severe health and safety risks posed by moving traffic _ on my travels to a Neighbourhood Watch meeting after collecting an elderly resident we were frightened by one child who ran in front of my car just before the meeting at which we were to talk on the subject. Parents and Children alike are afraid of the perceived threat of“Drug Dealers” and gangs within local parks, much of this concern is derived from the increase in media covered violent attacks and robberies in parks and town centres. Sports played in the street are causing community friction, parents squabbling with those opposed to such sport has resulted in threats and assaults on local residents. Stresses associated with such behaviour have led to people relocating or becoming reclusive. Youths terrorise residents opposed to their games by pelting homes with eggs or kicking balls at certain residents. Ball s have been slashed, abuses thrown at conflicting groups and untold damage to property and premises has been reported.

Redbridge has recently initiated a Parks Police Team and recruited our previous Borough Commander to lead this service. This team have heightened Police jurisdiction within the parks and in tandem with patrols from Safer Neighbourhood Teams have reduced crime within our local parks. Our major parks now have a team of park keepers, however the resource is failing to increase the perception of safety within parks and every day the number of visitors to parks and open spaces dwindles. People need to be encouraged to use our local parks which will further reduce criminal activity - as we all know visibility and potential witnesses to crime, deters felonious activity.

My Proposed Action Plan:

Redbridge has a limited £50,000 per annum budget for the maintenance of its parks and its dilapidated state attracts attention from criminal types as they are often vacant. More investment into parks is required to get them into a state fit for our society which deserves a better quality of life. Attractions such as Carnivals and fairs will increase the diversity of users our council should either support community organisations - encouraging a wider range and frequency of events or arrange events internally. Our Parks Police service should be expanded to increase the level of coverage especially with respect to high incident locations. If such measures are not implemented, I fear park usage will reach an all time nadir.

More enforcement should be taken with respect to reducing street sports activity to restore community confidence. Communities should be empowered by being able to state where or where not they are willing to accept game playing on streets.

Existing legislation does not permit any real action that could effectively reduce such activity- "No Ball Games" signage is advisory and has no legal basis I am taking a deputation to petition for a by-law against ASBO Ball games - to a Full Council Meeting on the 19th March 2009. This will be held at Ilford Town Hall at 19:15 and I need other residents to indicate support for such a scheme - so please provide comments.

The intention of any such local act would not be the criminalisation of young people , rather an empowerment of local Police, Statutory Agencies such as the ASBO team and would give choice back to residents about what they accept in their area. I would expect like with any law that such enforcers would undertake a commonsense approach to its application and that engagement would be a priority with a possible 3 strikes and your out delivery - that would be for them to decide. If you would like to join the deputation please contact me as you would be most welcome - or just feel free to turn up and join our campaign.

Comments from Alan Drake our Redbridge Community Safety Manager are as follows:

"The Anti Social Behaviour Service has seen an increase in this type of problem. At the moment officers have no powers to deal with the matter and can do no more than request that the children find somewhere else to play. Often this will not be effective.

I have no idea if it's possible to have a bye law preventing such activity and I'm sure there would be legal difficulties in enforcing such a law against young people. However I would support a proposal for such a bye law if it were done in conjunction with the promotion of our parks as a safe place for our children to go. It's important not to criminalise unnecessarily or demonise children for doing nothing more than what children do. If we are to take away areas that they consider to be "safe" places to go we need to replace these with others - namely our parks.

This is precisely why we have parks so that our children can play safely. I am sure Mr Boylin, Head of parks police, will testify to how improved the safety in our parks is since the introduction of the parks police service. We need to convince children and their parents of this."