Kings Cross Local Environment

Local crime falling

The Kings Cross area has undeniably got a lot safer over the past few years. Figures from the police, presented at Monday's West Area Committee showed that Caledonian Ward saw reductions in fraud, robbery, theft, sexual offences and violence against the person.  But there was an increase in criminal damage, which is 35% above the London average. 

The figures the police provided weren't very good at recording 'fear of crime', which is quite different to actual crime.  And there are always questions about unreported crime.  In many areas over half the population doesn't feel safe in their neighbourhood after dark.  Have a look at what the police are doing in their local leaflet about Kings Cross here. 
Download caledonian.pdf
It covers arresting drug dealers on the Bemerton, searching for cannabis factories with thermal imaging and tackling youth violence.

There is a big difference between sitting at home worrying about crime and actually talking to the police and helping them set their priorities, which is much more reassuring.  If you want to feel safer and Come along to the Safer Neighbourhood meeting on 31st January 7.00 to 8.30 at the Blessed Sacrament Church on Copenhagen Street.  Will post some more information closer to the time.

The detailed statistics the police presented are in the document here
Download Performance.pdf

£2million 'Ocean's Eleven' heist hits Kings Cross

A gang dressed as policemen apparently conned their way into a Kings Cross business and got away with up to £2m of IT gear and possibly some data, according to reports.  The police said that on Thursday night at about 2100 the robbers/fake police told staff at the data centre on St Pancras Way that they wanted to check something up on the roof.  Then handcuffed everyone and made off with a load of IT kit.  Real police arrived at 2200, staff were shaken but not hurt.

If you saw anything suspicious in the St Pancras Way area on 6 December at 2100 call CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111

Kings Cross is very close to the City and ideally located for all sorts of odd businesses.  One of these is IT data warehousing.  An anonymous building at 2-6 St Pancras Way (in the one-way system opposite the post sorting centre, next to the canal) hosts a load of IT kit for Verizon Business a global telecoms and IT company.  Banks and big companies let Verizon look after all their IT kit - reports suggest that JP Morgan was one of the customers of this data centre. 

The Verizon website boasts of its security at its data centres:

'• 24x7 uniformed guard service with interior and exterior closed-circuit television surveillance
• Electronic access at all data centre entrances, including biometric hand scanners
• Electronic key management systems and individually keyed racks'

Apparently checking police ID wasn't part of the security measures.......

Controversial Cally Road court case

There is an controversial legal battle being fought locally between the Wedge hair salon on the Cally (at 177 between the canal and Copenhagen Street) and a job applicant story here:

'The owner of an "alternative" London hair salon is being sued for religious discrimination after refusing to give a job to a Muslim woman who wanted to wear a headscarf at work.'

'Sarah Desrosiers, whose Wedge salon specialises in "urban funky" cuts, says she turned down applicant Bushra Noah because she was "selling image" and needed her staff to display their hairstyles to the public.

"I sell image - it's very important - and I would expect a hair stylist to display her hair because I need people to be drawn in off the street," said Ms Desrosiers. "It's the nature and style of my salon that brings people in and someone having their hair covered conflicts with that. If someone came in wearing a baseball hat or a cowboy hat I'd tell them to take it off while they're working. To me, it's absolutely basic that people should be able to see the stylist's hair."

Ms Noah said today she had attended a total of 25 interviews for hairdressing jobs without success and had decided to take legal action because she had been upset by Ms Desrosiers' comments. She said: "I decided to sue this hairdresser because she upset me the most. I felt so down and got so depressed, I thought if I am not going to defend myself, who is?

"When I spoke to her on the phone she offered me a trial day. But when I turned up she looked at me in shock. She asked if I wore the headscarf all the time. She kept repeating, 'I wish you told me over the phone'. '

I am strongly opposed to discrimination.  But It used to be the case, though may have changed that in law a say French restaurant could specify French speaking staff as it is fundamental to their image and offer.  Where ever you come down on this though you have to treat people sensitively and respect their religious views.

Wedge tries really hard on a bit of the Cally that desperately needs modern businesses, let's hope this gets resolved either way without driving them out of business.

The police, you wait for ages then, a bit like buses.....

Some welcome police activity on York Way the other day - a large crowd of police was pulling vehicles with presumably no tax or other issues and impounding the cars.  I guess they were using automatic number plate recognition technology to scan the cars coming past, linked into the police national computer and the DVLA database. I also suspect that this sort of detection is good for the conviction rate as tax disc offences are pretty cut and dried.  Pulling over people with tax offences can lead to all sorts of other leads.  It is good to see so many police in the area (operating out of Randell's Road) but it isn't clear what this does for ultra local crime and ASB, given that York Way is largely a through route.  Will see if i can get a comment from the police.  Thanks to Cllr Paul Convery for spotting and snapping.

A graffiti too far - cleaning up Regents Canal

The hard pressed environmental crime team at Islington Council has been struggling for ages to keep up with the graffiti that disfigures Regents Canal.  It is British Waterways territory but the Council gets marked down for it in their government performance data.  The normal jet washers on the back of trucks don't reach to the tow path from the road.  So Leon Meredith did a deal with British Waterways to use one of their boats as a mobile graffiti fighting destroyer. 

They started work recently and did a great job at the York Way end.  But it will take months to work their way along the canal.  There are only three people in environmental crime at Islington who have to deal with all the boroughs graffiti and fly posting.  They deserve more funding. I made an affectionate film of their struggle...... (click here to link to YouTube or play below and turn your sound on)

Kings Cross crime forecast now arriving at platform one.....

The Gazette has been asking if crime will increase when the Eurostar arrives - logically, there will be a net increase in the volume of crime simply because there will be millions of extra people flowing through the area.  The real issue is whether there will be a proportionate increase in crime that is noticeable to those of us who live or work here.  I am optimistic and think not - the transport interchanges and the streets around them have improved enormously in recent years. No one has asked me if I fancy some 'business' for a year or two and the days of 'Class A Corner' are long gone....  All views are welcome below.  The following comes from the Gazette  story at this link:

'Last year drugs and vice unit Operation Welwyn - a joint task force between Camden police, Islington police, British Transport police and City of London police - was disbanded after a dramatic fall in crime and anti-social behaviour in the area.

'But with an extra eight million people a year about to pour into St Pancras some fear King's Cross will become a prime target for drug dealers, pickpockets and sex traffickers.

'Chief Superintendent Mark Heath, of Camden police, said: "It's a flexible machine and we have the resources to move about the borough. We can fight on two fronts - we do that now. We've got a stack of different operations running any day of the week.

"British Transport Police (BTP) take the lead within the confines of the station but if it's there we will move with it."

'Chief Superintendent Heath said "lessons had been learned" from the original Eurostar terminal at Waterloo and that crime in King's Cross was projected to fall by a quarter over the next four years.

'When pressed on whether he expected a rise in incidents after St Pancras International opens on November 14 he said: "I haven't got a crystal ball."

'He added: "We are monitoring it really closely - if we need to respond to it in a certain way we will respond to it in a certain way. It's a really big and fantastic project and a crime prevention adviser was involved with the architects when it was designed. We welcome it to the borough."

'Chief Inspector Jeff Boothe, of BTP, said: "We have five shifts of police officers providing 24 hours coverage of the station. We are confident that not only with the uniformed presence but also with CID we are well placed to provide an effective police presence at St Pancras International."

The Ladykillers - original trailer

The Ladykillers was one of the great British comedies and filmed in Kings Cross. Thanks to Sarah I have found the original trailer online. I've put the trailer in the new site KingsCrossTV.org here (while you are there have a look around at the other videos - some great stuff.)  The background shots of 1955 Kings Cross are becoming harder and harder to recognise as development proceeds.  But Martin Underwood's superb, continually updated site here takes you through all the locations with great precision, maps and photos.  Alec Guinness was never better, except possibly as George Smiley (and perhaps not as Obi Wan Kanobi).

Safer Neighbourhoods Policing Team - Sept News

Our Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team has created a new newsletter to keep local folks appraised of the staus of policing in the Caledonian Ward.  It is my intention to continually post a copy here for all to revew as I receive it.

I will suggest to the Team that they email it to interested residents, so if you wish to receive a copy on an ongoing basis, you should drop them a note at: [email protected]

Just click this link for a copy of the current newsletter: Download safer_neighbourhoods_1.pdf

Beyond the hoodies - locals reply to Ann Widdecombe

Ann Widdecombe made a 'shock horror' piece about life on the Andover Estate for ITV.  Stephen one of our local youth workers from the Copenhagen Youth Partnership was in it.  As is often the way with tabloid TV it was overall not very well balanced.  With judicious use of harsh settings in the cold for young people and nice warm cosy settings for people who were complaining about them.  There are of course lots of ASB issues involving young people on estates, but there are two sides to every story. The kids on the Andover have made their own film in reply to Ann Widdecombe - it is on YouTube - click here or on the picture below.

UPDATE 5 Spetember

I attended a debate at the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) last night on the cult of the amateur - a polemic by Andrew Keen on how amateur media is, basically, ruining our culture.  I raised the work of the Andover Estate young people as an example of how the internet gives a voice to people who are otherwise disenfranchised and don't get a look in with traditional media.

Tiber Gardens trouble

The lovely sun trap designed for old people to sit over looking the canal is a distant memory for the vandalised, intimidating, over-grown dump that is now Tiber Gardens.  This spot just off York Way has so much potential it is a huge shame to see it in shabby disrepair.  It has become a minor ASB hotspot - the kids in the picture were allegedly hurling stones across the canal at Ice Wharf from Tiber Gardens, breaking a window.  There must be S106 money in the system to fix it up.  But there is no clear direction and control over the space - the land is owned by HfI and it isn't clear what they are doing with it.  It isn't Greenspace's patch.  Will do some digging and see what can be found out.