Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Council downgrades focus on tackling home burglaries
The future of an award winning service protecting Haringey homes from burglars is in doubt after councillors decided to axe its funding.
Haringey Care and Repair has been operating in the borough for the last four years, installing new locks and security devices in vulnerable homes and helping elderly people to avoid becoming burglar victims.
However, it could now face the chop as Haringey Council prepares to withdraw its annual £35,000 grant because tackling residential burglary is no longer a top priority.
The cabinet is meeting next week to decide whether to ratify the officers’ recommendations pull the funding, as part of its wide ranging budget cuts.
In a report being presented to councillors, the project is acknowledged as "high performing", but it adds that after three years focusing tackling home burglaries, “the focus for the foreseeable future is now on curbing rising levels of street crime and on violent crime especially as it affects young adults”.
All projects were assessed by the council against a list of criteria and scored accordingly, and the anti-burglary scheme did not score highly enough to be preserved.
The Care and Repair scheme in Haringey was recently awarded runner-up prize in the 2010 Safer London awards for its work tackling a sharp rise in burglary in Haringey.
In the scheme, experts advise residents on the security of their homes and new locks and devices can be installed if there are weaknesses.
Project manager Steve Fallon wrote to the council during a consultation on funding cuts, urging it to reconsider axing the grant for a "highly successful" scheme.
He acknowledged cuts were on the cards, and said a reduced grant of £20,000, coupled with the existing Met subsidy of £10,000 and contributions from residents who are helped, would mean Care and Repair could continue in Haringey.
However, a wholesale cut, if agreed on Wednesday, May 18, leaves the future of the whole project in doubt.
(Story from Haringey Independent)
Tags for Forum Posts: burglary, public spending cuts
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Aren't the police offering the same service (at least in some wards). Apologies if it actually IS the same service, but I think many SNTs will do this if you're concerned.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Maddy Paxman's experience may prove the success of the scheme's security advice and lock-fitting activities. The opportunist card-carrying Yale lock operators have now, like the Council, shifted their focus to the direct brick-through-the-window method. Time was a London Brick Company product through your window would have at least a semi-literate note attached, but I suppose our burglars today are not in the business of sending messages.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Received wisdom was that thieves don't go through glass - so what has changed? Are there some kind of new flexible Kevlar vests + gloves selling well in N17?
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N17? Surely you're not suggesting . . . ., Pamish? I like to think The Ladder South attracts a more upmarket burglar, from N6 & N10.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Sounds to me like the police work is council funded. So it's probably one and the same.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Burglary is the top priority for our local SNT, as voted by you the customer in the SNT's last survey for priorities.
The council/Met need to draw in more funding overall to cover street crime & burglary, not choose between them. Haringey is in the Top 10 burglary areas in the UK.
If this council was truely interactive in seeking our views on funding priorites it would follow the example of the forums on the Redbridge council site.
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