Neighbourhood Wardens hit street menace

Monday March 8, 2010

A new team of eagle-eyed enforcement officers will start pounding the borough’s pavements this week in a council bid to drive street crime down further.

The 17 strong neighbourhood wardens team was unveiled at Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council’s Crime Summit last Saturday (6 March) and will now focus on ramping up enforcement against litter-louts, graffiti vandals and street drunks – particularly in the borough’s housing estates.

Neighbourhood wardens replace the old estate wardens and street wardens teams and will deliver a more responsive and highly visible service, according to the council.

Historically, the estate wardens focused solely on the borough’s estates and the street wardens only patrolled a limited number of streets north of the Uxbridge Road. The new neighbourhood wardens will continue to target anti-social behaviour on housing estates but will also cover all of the borough’s streets. The new teams will also provide coverage for more hours – seven days a week.

Cllr Greg Smith, Cabinet Member for Crime & Street Scene, says: “We are taking the best of both from our old teams and have come up with a new squad of neighbourhood wardens that will be more customer-focussed and provide an enhanced level of enforcement across the borough.”

The wardens have the power to issue fines for dog fouling and littering and will be helping local schools with truancy patrols. They will also provide back up to the Police in enforcing the borough-wide controlled drinking zone. H&F Homes, the local police and residents’ groups were fully consulted on the plans for neighbourhood wardens.

Derek Finch, 68, Chairman of the Lancaster Court Residents’ Association, says: “The new neighbourhood wardens are definitely a step in the right direction. We are hoping that the new team will be more proactive than the old estate wardens were. We want them to get out and about to tackle the problems head on.

“We have had problems with youngsters who graffiti the place and cause damage and a more visible presence from our wardens will be most welcome.”

Three teams of four wardens will work a seven day a week shift pattern from 8:00am –11:00pm. A nominated ‘estate ambassador’ will be allocated to each of the borough’s estates providing residents with a named point of contact in the new team.

Cllr Smith adds: “Neighbourhood wardens will help the police to reclaim the streets from the minority of anti-social hooligans who think they are above the law. They will proactively enforce the rules that law-abiding residents sign up to and be a visible determent to crime.”