Church Street is a remarkable, diverse area, benefitting from being cohesive and mutually respectful. This is a culturally rich community drawn from many ethnicities, religions and nationalities.  The range of business types on Church Street proudly reflect this diversity.

Until recently, levels of crime were at a predictable and tolerable level consisting of occasional petty theft that did not impact on the image of Church Street and was without significant threat to businesses or their personnel. An increase in the severity and frequency of crime coincides with the decision of Westminster Council to remove surveillance cameras from church street.

This month alone, we’ve seen alarming numbers of crime and disorder in the area-

Only yesterday, there was an attempted robbery from one of our elderly fine jewellery dealers and fortunately the dealer had assistance and was able to prevent the robbery. If that wasn’t enough, a CCTV engineer came in to repair camera works, that had been smashed recently and when returned to his vehicle, he discovered it was broken into and his trade tools were stolen. This happened in broad daylight!

A brazen thief entered the community drop-in centre social meeting last week and stole elderly pensioners bags directly from them.

Verbal threats made to kill local business owners

Attempted break-in to the antiques market by at least four people using sledge hammers and pick axes

Attempted thefts of equipment from visiting film crews

Running street fights and shop windows smashed

Last month, there was a stabbing at a public car park

Mugging of an arts dealer and new tenant by two thieves on bikes  which resulted in theft of his briefcase and contents

Shooting at the Church Street pub

Attempted arson to businesses

This is just the tip of an iceberg as the list goes on, as this is just one ward out of 20!

Recent publicity has worked against the council’s efforts and aspirations to raise the profile of Church Street.

Officials of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association have advised their members that Church Street is blacklisted, the area is dangerous and should be avoided.  A large number of businesses state that their customers have had cab drivers refuse their journeys to Church Street.  The LTDA monthly magazine have published articles highlighting Church Street as a “no-go area’, as described and illustrated on a map published in their October and November 2018 issues.

Despite the police’s excellent work, we are aware of the limitations placed on policing in that there are only two dedicated officers and one support officer serving over 11,000 residents in the Ward. They are heavily overworked, with not much resource available to them to carry out their daily patrols and frequent weapon sweeps.

Frankly, this isn’t fair on them, nor is it fair on residents, businesses and visitors that are victims of crime.

This is supposedly a ‘City for All’, where people are born, live or work in a supportive and safe environment, but in reality, its slowly crawling towards a ‘city of hell’.