loss of community wardens in east dulwich

[omz]

heard from a reliable source, southwark are cutting the community wardens from our area. seems like the local crime rate is going in the wrong direction for that to happen.

[acumenman]

I would rather see the community wardens than having the police station full of police personnel,

that one never sees except when they enter, or leave the yard, and close their electronically controlled ten foot high

gates behind them, almost as if they are under seige from the general public.

[intexasatthe moment]

My husband was employed by the contractors who built this police station .

At the time he told me that it was designed to keep people out as much as keep people in .

[peterstorm1985]

Perhaps I live on the wrong street or go shopping at the wrong times but I've only rarely seen any community wardens. The only time I have ever seen them in my street there were two of them having a really good chat with each other but paying little attention to anything else that was happening (I had to ask twice for them to move so I could pass them on the pavement). Their gait and general demeanour didn't give me any confidence that they would leap into action if needed.

Maybe I'm unlucky, or perhaps my street isn't seen as a priority (this may be the case, as it's a busy street and there are always lots of people to keep an eye on things). I'd be really pleased to hear any examples of how the community wardens have done a good job in the area.

[DJKillaQueen]

Community wardens deal with low level anti social behaviour and report things like fly tipping, litter, graffitti and that sort of thing. They can also give out fines for dog fouling. It may be that in relation to those things, ED isn't particularly high on the radar compared to other wards in the borough (and cuts have to be made somewhere).

They are not in any way comparable to Police or the job that the Police do.

[James Barber]

Community Wardens report eco crimes and generally deal with the grotty things that make out lives annoying but the Police wont generally look into.

BUT they always go around in pairs - even in East Dulwich - and if one is absent they become a threesome.

When the Lib Dems led the council we tried to resolve this but made no progress.

Shame the Labour led administration also don't feel they can get a more sensible working pattern ie not pairs and threesomes which would mean either the same community warden nmber would go further or cutting numbers would see the same number of patrols.

And the market has all sort of personal GPS alarm systems a la Alarmguard to ensure personal safety is maintained even when working alone. If such systems are good enough for witness protection etc then good enough for lone Community warden working in non hot areas.