Friday, October 20, 2006

Needham Triangle anti-social behaviour problems

I am really worried about the kids up to mischief in Needham Triangle in Kensington

On Saturday several climbed on to the very top of the roof ridge of a house on Needham Road, hugging the chimney stack and waving to their pals down below. One little boy slipped and fell right down the roof, only being saved from going over the edge by one of his pals who managed to grab him.

They have been throwing stones to break windows of empty houses for sale on Chiswell Street, clambering into backyards of boarded up houses on nearby Adderley and setting fires and running along the tops of alley walls.

Obviously it is making local people angry but it is also frightening to think about how close they are to hurting themselves in these dangerous games.

One practical solution that has been suggested to me is that we could consider installing some special rollers which fit onto the tops of the alley walls and so prevent you climbing on to them. I suppose they were designed as a further step to combat burglaries, always assuming they had already managed to get over the alleygate. But there is no reason why they could not be used to stop children from going where they shouldn't.

I put it to Council officers at a meeting yesterday, they seemed interested in the idea, it is a question of money as with everything else but they promised to look into it.

Watch this space.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Whilst I was out knock up for the by election in Gorton South yesterday there was a group of children up to similar tricks climbing an allygate to get to a neighbouring roof.

The fire brigade were there - I don’t know if they were responding to a call about the children or not - but what they did do was engage with the group of kids show them the fire engine and no doubt use the time as an opportunity to point out the folly of what they were doing and the possible consequences. Perhaps you could arrange for a similar response from your fire service?