It’s serious – we must

BEING robbed has become the norm and my understanding is that people fear there will be reprisals if they report it.

Parents are worried about letting their teenagers go on the bus and that is not right.

There has been a 21 per cent increase in robbery in Enfield since November and there has been a 20 per cent rise in knife crime over the past year.

We are in a perfect storm that threatens our community’s stability – it is that serious. People are right to be concerned. At the same time we have gone to the top of a league table we do not want to be the top of – the highest rate for serious youth violence in London in the past year.

In Enfield we have lost 230 to 240 officers from our streets.

My first issue is to say to the Government that we need more police on our streets. We need to bring back the neighbourhood police who know who these people are and can help stop them being drawn into this.

But this takes a multi-agency approach. The education service, youth services, our council which allocates funds to voluntary sector groups, all of which would come together to tackle these issues, have got no