Badock's Woods pupils fight back against vandalism

Pupils of Badocks Wood School reclaiming their play area from vandalism - with some great art-work

It is a tragedy for everyone who has worked so hard to get superb new play equipment ( I confess, I still get a bit excited about a really good children's playground) to see it vandalised and burned down, as the local community and councillors in Southmead saw in Doncaster Road Park.

They playground had been beautifully designed, alongside the children, to provide facilities that could even tempt an MP to give them ago. So it was with anger and sorrow that the community found it burned and vandalised.

But Southmead is not a community to be defeated! Together, Councillors, community workers and Badock's Wood School have rallied round to send out a message that the community, the normally silent majority do have a voice, and are energetically encouraging people to be proud of where we live, and to reclaim our community for the majority.

There was some fine art-work from the children, and a lot of anger and sorrow that had been turned into a positive force for change, and for good. Well done everyone , and thank you on behalf of all of us for your efforts. That's how change happens! 

We can't give in to crime

On Friday I joined residents who have set up a petition to get bus services back to normal in Henbury following a spate of attacks to the buses.

I have to say, I was outraged that First Bus services should be re-directed and stopped in Henbury becuase of a spate of crime.

Ok, I know that First Bus has a duty to protect its drivers.

Ok, I understand the police are stretched, and too much of their time is still spent on administration not the front line.

But giving into crime like this is not on because it gives out completely the wrong signal to criminals - that civilisation will give into them, and change its behaviour because of what they do.

That's a dangerous precedent; It's unfair on residents whose travel is severely disrupted, and all-too-often have to put up with the kind of crime and disruption that the buses are fleeing day-in, day-out.

It's not a question of 'whose fault' this is. It's about making sure things return to normal ASAP and that this never happens again.

Therefore I am meeting the Police and First Bus to work out how in future its the criminals who suffer for their crimes, not the public, and that it is law and order, not louts and criminals, that calls the shots.

On the Henbury beat with the police

Last Friday between 5.30pm and 1am, I joined the local police as they were out patrolling Henbury - and the notorious Crow Lane. I was wanting to see the youth crime problem from the other side- from the perspective of the police. I followed Sgt. Terry Scoble who explained their Zero Tolerance policing policy for parts of Henbury. To be honest, I was expecting riots on the streets, but on the night I was out the place was remarkably deserted.

As we drove round, meeting and dealing with small clusters of varyingly nuisance young people, one thing struck me: It was Friday night, and the only facility open for young people was... not the Youth Club. Despite reassurances that it would be open on Friday night, the youth club was closed. What about the Youth Bus? The Youth Bus seemed no where to be found. The only place open for young people was the voluntary organisation - where no one was paid to be there- it was Emmanuel Chapel.

For me that spoke volumes, and took me back to David Camerons' conference speech, and what he said about liberating communities from an over-bearing and inefficient state. So often, the best way the state can help the community is to channel all its support and resources into helping other organisations, real, organic, community organisations, do the work.

it was a fascinating and valuable experience coming out with the police. I'd like to thank Sgt. Terry Scoble and his team for being so accommodating, and providing such an informative and educational evening.

Henbury Crime Public Meeting

I had become sickened and frustrated by the apparently huge discrepancy between what was officially the state of youth crime in Henbury, and what people actually living in Henbury were telling me.

I'd spoken to Charlie Barron, who's resigning from Henbury Football Club because he is simply tired out of coming to the club to find it vandalised again. I'd spoken to people who'd had kids taking drugs in their back garden who were too afraid to do anything. I've been trying to help vulnerable residents get rehoused because they are bullied to the point they are prisoners in their own homes...

Against that back-drop, I'm afraid I find it hard to believe that home-secretary Jacqui Smith had fully understood what people are going through when she came to Henbury, trailed by the local Labour party, last Autumn to say how great everything was.

I know people are working hard - I work with them where I can. I know lots of good stuff is being done - but that does not mean that the views and experiences of people living in Henbury can simply be white-washed over with statistics, initiatives, Ministerial visits, and official reassurances that Henbury is an 'inspirational example' ( as Jacqui Smith said.)

That's one reason why I called a public meeting - to get out in the open what is really going on. The other reason was to pool all the suggestions and comments together to come up with a plan of action.

When I asked the audience how many of them thought the underlying causes of the problem was that discipline seems to have become a dirty word; police don't have the powers they need, but all the paperwork they don't need; and that human-rights legislation has been absurdly abused to place the welfare of the criminal about that of the victim, nearly everyone raised their hand. But changing that culture and in places the law, is a job for government. In the meantime, there are things we can do:

1. Get the Youth Centre reopened, every night, offering diverse and exciting activities. Ensure that local young people are responsible for decorating and building the centre, so they feel they own it.
2. Press for more police, out on the streets more - not just around Crow Lane, but around other trouble spots as well.
3. Really clamp down hard on alcohol outlets that sell drink to underage kids.
4. Whatever happened to real zero-tolerance? We need it back.

And we haven't got time for all this to be done through a cloud of initiatives and a jungle of agencies and a confusion of a proliferation of partnerships. It needs to be done swiftly and decisively.

Something that's often forgotten in all this, is that it is a minority of young people who give a bad name to all the rest. Two young people from Henbury school - Amy Hillier and Joel Bowd, spoke to the meeting about how fed up they were with a minority wrecking everything for the majority, and how many young people are as afraid of the antisocial behaviour as the adults. It's worth remembering that although a minority of young people are the problem, the majority can be part of the solution.

Read my Guardian Blog on Knife Crime

Read my Guardian blog today on Knife Crime HERE

by the time the child is clutching a knife, ready to stab, they have already been drilled to know that if they do something bad, there will be no real consequences, apart from some desperate hand-wringing from society and a few emotional videos to tell them not to do it again.