North London: South Harrow Market goes downhill with little action on fly-tipping, drug-taking and shoplifting

Sanjay Kotak, who is part of South Harrow Traders, pointed to a ‘significant decrease’ in enforcement and visibility of officers in the area but the council claimed the number of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued over the past three months shows it is receiving ‘significant attention’.

Sanjay raised the issue with the Harrow Council at a recent meeting of all councillors (Thursday, November 28). He highlighted the concerns of traders that enforcement officers are ‘less visible’ than before, which has led to an escalation of anti-social behaviour around their businesses.

Sanjay said: “Over the past 12 months, there has been a noticeable decline in the state of South Harrow around the shopping centre. While the interventions previously agreed upon by the council, traders, and residents initially improved the area for visitors, these efforts now seem to have ceased.”

He added: “Currently, there appears to be little to no deterrence against littering, spitting, fly-tipping on side roads and behind shops, cars/vans/ delivery drivers parking on pavements, drug dealing in broad daylight, aggressive street drinkers, and shoplifting. As local traders in South Harrow, we have also observed a significant decrease in enforcement from APCOA.”

Harrow Council signed a contract with enforcement company APCOA in July to tackle problems such as littering and other enviro-crime offences in the borough. The arrangement allows APCOA neighbourhood enforcement officers to patrol streets, town centres, and parks and open spaces, and issue on-the-spot fines to offenders.

Portfolio holder for cleaner streets and public safety, Cllr Pritesh Patel, said the contract states a ‘minimum of 240 hours’ across a week but the number of officers on patrol can vary by time and day ‘depending on the issues being tasked to the team’.

Cllr Patel claimed APCOA are working to create more detailed data, broken down by ward, but figures for fines issued in South Harrow between July and October show that the area is getting ‘significant attention’ from enforcement officers.

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According to the figures, 28 fines were issued in July, 48 in August, 48 in September and 53 in October. These account for between 7 and 11 per cent of the total fines issued across the whole borough during this period.

Cllr Patel said: “With 22 wards we would expect the average percentage of FPNs issued per ward to be around 4 or 5 per cent, all things being equal.” However, all things aren’t equal. More built-up areas, such as the town centre and around South Harrow shopping centre, typically attract greater levels of antisocial behaviour than quieter, more residential areas.

Sanjay requested details on what the fines were issued for, to alleviate concerns that those handed out ‘appeared to be like a check-box exercise’ but Cllr Patel said he ‘doesn’t have that information to hand’ but promised to provide it at a later date. He did, however, point to some of the work that has taken place in the area over the past few months.

Cllr Patel said: “Environmental protection teams visited the South Harrow ward councillors in August, [where] the team identified a number of Issues related to fly-tipping – in the service roads and bins being kept on the street outside of collection times.”

He added: “The team has served several community protection warnings on local residents and businesses related to this […]. The teams are also engaging with local traders to work together to resolve the issues.

“Our enforcement agents do not work set hours in any specific location as their patrol plans are based on intelligence received from the police, environmental health team, councillors, residents complaints, and complaints from businesses.”