Let's talk crime and safety? Maybe we could start by not leaving an invitation card for burglers in residents' letter boxes
You would expect any proficient politician to use his or her incumbency to the max just ahead of an election. All within the rules of course.
So after almost four years of virtual non-engagement with the people of Croydon, London Mayor Boris had a card advertising a public meeting about policing pushed into letter boxes yesterday. All very neatly designed, printed on thick (ie. pricey) card.
It is a reasonable expectation that the design, print and distribution of the cards will have cost the Council Tax-payers a pretty penny, and all conveniently just a few months ahead of the London elections. And you might also reasonably expect the same process, and costs, to be rolled out across many other London boroughs, too.
A fair cop? Another tell-tale calling card from Boris
The Croydon meeting is on Saturday morning next week, February 4, at the Jury’s Inn Hotel. There, Croydon residents can quiz Kit Malthouse, Boris’s deputy for policing and crime, over the axing of six sergeants from Croydon’s Safer Neighbourhood Teams.
You can be sure that this City Hall-funded event will be a showcase for the current Mayoralty that is now taking over direct responsibility over the police from the Metropolitan Police Authority.
Pity, then, that many of these leaflets will have served as a burgler’s calling card. For many of them were stuffed just half way through letter boxes in Waddon, providing a nice, clear notice to any canny criminal that no one is at home, an invitation to any opportunistic burglar.
- Inside Croydon: brought to you from the heart of the borough, free of charge, an independent voice standing for freedom of speech for the people of Croydon
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Mine was also stuffed half way through the letterbox.
You don’t need Boris to do this.
Just pick a weekend when they decide it is you area’s turn to get the Sadvertiser and walk round on a Sunday morning. You’ll soon tell who’s away for the weekend.