Streatham and Stockwell

Out in the baking afternoon sunshine for a walkabout with Jill, a resident from the South Streatham Neighbourhood Watch, to carry out one of our regular audits of pavement defects, potholes, graffiti etc. We have just bid auf wiedersehen to Oliver, the chair, who has gone to live in Stuttgart. This was Jill’s first time “on the beat” and we covered Ellison, Danbrook, Hepworth and Colmer Roads. We ended up with quite a list which I will forward to the relevant parts of the council for action when I have managed to decipher my notes, which will not be easy as my pen kept drying up in the heat.

Later, after sitting in for a while on a thoughtful staff LBGT forum at the Town Hall, I went to the Community Police Consultative Group meeting in Brixton Road regarding the de Menezes shooting and implications of the CPS decision. My colleague Cllr Imogen Walker, a Stockwell councillor, was there and I sat next to her.

It was a difficult meeting with no resolution, not least because of interjections from the Green Party and Respect on the issue of Iraq, which were not particularly insightful in terms of the specific events of 22 July last year. Finding a resolution won’t be helped by the trial process which will now be gone through – rightly, of course – but I understand it means we are unlikely to see the Independent Police Complaints Commission report for another year or more.