Police statement on UBR closures
In a statement issued this afternoon, concerning the forced closure of three businesses on Upper Brockley Road, the Met Police said:
Yesterday (17.07.12) a closure notice under Part 1A, Section 11A of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 was served in respect of three premises on Upper Brockley Road, SE4, namely The Honey Pot, Super Cuts and Gold Crest.
The notices were served by Brockley Safer Neighbourhoods Team who have been working closely with Lewisham Borough Crime Reduction Service.
There have been numerous complaints from the community about the levels of crime and the anti-social behaviour associated with these premises.
Acting on local intelligence Brockley Safer Neighbourhoods Team have been working hard to tackle these issues
Today (18.07.12) officers attended Bromley Magistrates Court and made an application for a Closure Order for three months.
That hearing has now been adjourned until the 01.08.12 and the judge has ordered that the three premises are to remain closed until that hearing takes place
The owners do have the right to appeal and now have 14 days to do so.
Police Sergeant Jon Biddle, Brockley Safer Neighbourhoods Team:
"We have acted following a deluge of complaints from the community over the high levels of anti social behaviour, in particular drug taking and dealing. The closure notice came about after collating many months worth of evidence. Whilst the prospect of closure for any business is a blow to the local economy, the law is there for a reason and we have acted following concerns raised."
52 comments:
hear hear
About bl++dy time!
well done. These shops have been running riot for some time and as a local resident,i know exactly what has gone on here. There have been large gatherings outside the premises, open drug dealing and taking, shots fired last year at an unlawful street party.the list goes on. no doubt some people won't be happy, but there are laws in this country and we all need to abide by them, not just the ones that suit you.
I hope the all parts of the local community can act responsibly and not use this as an excuse to riot. Watch this space.
"there are laws in this country and we all need to abide by them, not just the ones that suit you."
Hi Furious!
It's only for three months, then hopefully these businesses will reopen having learnt their lesson.
but... I notice the justification given for this is the large number of complaints. Was there also a lot of substantiated evidence? I live very near here and it seems to me that some people just have it in for these businesses. I can't relate to most of the complaints on this blog about the area, and I have lived here over 5 years. Yes, there was a shooting, but how long ago was this?
I sincerely hope that people have not made complaints that exaggerated the problem here and deprived people of jobs.
Well done Brockley Police
"I notice the justification given for this is the large number of complaints. Was there also a lot of substantiated evidence?"
Well obviously, the police can't comment on the quality of the evidence while this process is underway. So we will have to wait and see.
"Yes, there was a shooting, but how long ago was this?"
Two shootings actually. While you've been living there. The last one was last summer. But APART from that, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Well I guess I am mightily unobservant, I only know about the shootings as a result of this blog...
Well that's what the site's for. To let people know what's going on in the area, good and bad. Mostly good.
I expect the other businesses along that parade would be glad things are quietening down.
Sorry but to say there have been two shootings is a bit of a misnomer. As far as I know there were no injuries in either incident and on one occasion the gun was fired in the air. To say they were shootings implies injury, when actually the weapons were only discharged. Now obviously you don't want any guns at all but firing a gun and shooting or killing someone is a big difference. The term shootings has a feel of tabloid sensationalism about it.
There have been shooting on Brockley Cross, don't see the organic fennel shops being closed over it somehow...
Kind of depends if theses imaginary shops of which you speak are meeting places for people who (only) discharge their guns. So your point is one of them moot ones?
@Meg - that's a fair clarification of course and I always try to avoid sensalationism.
But really, semantics aside, we can surely agree that residents have the right to be concerned about guns being shot outside their homes. And we can hopefully agree the police have a duty to try to do something about gun crime and the other crimes taking place at this location.
So, assuming we agree on that, then what would you do if you were the police?
and there was the shooting 2 christmasses ago where the windows of the Honeypot were shot in.
Surely that must count as a shooting rather than an innocent weapon discharging
@anon 18.24
I pretty much guarantee that people have made exaggerated complaints because they have it in for these businesses.
I'm still not clear why residents at one end of one road in lewisham should have it in for three particular shops. Don't they like u-bends? How can you pretty much guarantee that?
Well that's the terrible thing about democracy - we all get a voice. People who feel intimidated get to complain to the police, the accused get to defend themselves to the same and you get to reckon how you know it all better.
This is London, not Texas. When someone possess a firearm it is a serious matter. Gun crime has to be dealt with severely. As it stands, possession of a firearm is an offence that attracts a five year prison term.
There have been some very serious incidents in Brockley. Guns have been used in murder and there have been drive-by shootings.
The gangs that are attracted to the parties organised by these 'businesses' have amongst them some violent criminals who are wont to settle their professional rivalries with deadly weapons.
This sort of thing has to be dealt with or it will escalate and we will have another murder in Brockley.
This is amazing news. Great work to the police and safer community officers.
:)
Excellent.
Someone down at that nick is setting the right tone for this area. Zero tolerance, thank you very much. Crime is unacceptable.
Some crimes are acceptable.
Well done to the police.
Yet again there are people on this blog who seem to think that, because they personally have been unaffected by the antisocial behaviour harboured by these premises, it must be a lie fabricated by some conspirators. No, you may belucky to live far enough away: so don't insult the residents who have been threatened on a weekly basis because it is not you.
Hopefully one day the long arm of the law will protect you some day too.
Well done to the police (though a good few years too late, if you ask me!)
Very good outcome. I assume that if after 3 months they are taken to court again that would be the end of it.
So hopefully they learn their lesson about following rules.
The country is still overdue a grown-up debate on drugs with one of the possible outcomes being legalisation. The fact so many people take the Daily Mail's view on it and adopt it as their own is staggering in this day and age.
Anon@20.14 - very well said.
"Having it in for" businesses that facilitate antisocial/criminal behaviour seems entirely rational and reasonable to me.
"businesses that facilitate antisocial/criminal behaviour" From banks to newspapers, this is latter day corporate Britain.
Are you still at school then Kolp? I had you down as older than that.
So Kolp, you want bussinesses that promote antisocial behaviour to be closed down. Or should they be let off like the banks? Your conflating two situations that are not the same. if they were the Honeypot owners would be up infront of a select committe.
Anyway, it's going to court. Any lawyer with an ounce of competence should be able to overturn it if it was as a result of hearsay or malicious rumour. Perhaps you should be there as an expert witness.
Why are they only bring closed for 3 months!! They should be permanently closed, and other local entrepreneurs allowed to rent them to ensure they don't fall into the hands of criminals again. The junk shop turned into the lovely Gently Elephant, there's no reason why the same cant happen on this stretch.
No the businesses should return but without the attendant alleged anti-social issues.
I hear some calling what happened "ethnic cleansing" I think that's an inappropiate allusion to genocidal warfare so a bit OTT!
However if this is really about getting businesses that largely serve and attract a certain strata of black people out of UBR.
Then this is 'gentrification' too far. Everyone needs to be served in this community. We don't dismiss people who are difficult. We if we are decent, at least try to work a fair solution for all.
My children attend Myatt Garden Primary School on the same road. What amenities are these shops/takeaways providing? They smoke grass on the street, openly swear in front of the children and refuse to move out of the way when we try to pass. It's intimidating for the hundreds of primary school children and their parents who have to pass them on their way to school. They also leave chicken bones and other rotting food waste all over the pavement. I'm surprised Environmental Health haven't intervened. I'm sure it wasn't difficult to collect evidence to use to support these closures. A welcome measure.
why on earth would a plumbing shop attract 'a certain strata of black people' if it was just a normal plumbing shop ?!!
the people hanging around there were not picking up plumbing supplies , they were being anti social and a nuisance and that is why the shop has been closd down and hopefully will reopen as a plumbing supply shop with the same owner but without the entourage of street drinkers/drug dealers and people shooting guns. This would be the perfect outcome. No-one wants anyone to lose their business .
Some people have short memories Supercuts lost its licence went to court to appeal and lost.
The situation in UBR has dragged on for years. Residents had regularly drawn attention to anti-social behaviour and felt those in authority were not listening or taking action.
Eventually a Controlled Drinking Zone was introduced but those being anti social didn't get the message leading to the shooting of a gun in a public place.
The dismissive way this shooting has been played down is astonishing...drink, drugs and guns don't mix.
You have evidence of that in New Cross where someone at a party fired a gun and the bullet went through a wall killing an innocent person.
So these tenants were persistently anti social and arrogant with it and people are complaining they have been booted out...
If these open up as mung businesses I'd rather start hanging outside on the street getting lairy and get them shut down too.
I have been in the restaurant on that parade and witnessed the intimidating antics those drunken street people get up to.
The businesses that have been closed are just a front for drinking/gambling/dealing and who knows what else.
Those suggesting that these are legit businesses that have been forced out of business unfairly are just having a laugh at everyone elses expense.
Ethnic cleansing? Villain cleansing more like!
Upper Brockley Road and Brockley Cross should have these dodgy gang hangouts shut down.
Otherwise we will have more fights and guns and drunken parties and they will continue to intimidate their neighbours.
If these were legitimate businesses, there would be no problem.
I don't see what the political side of this is.
If a couple of shops/cafes turn out to be the hangouts of drunks, dealers etc and there have been a number of violent acts/police busts and so on over the years, those businesses will be shut down in the end.
It's not right to draw attention to what 'strata' of the community the offenders belong to.
Drop the fascination with 'race' or 'culture'. The same would happen if the people involved were white/green.
I think when the Honeypot reopened in 3 months, it should as a gesture of goodwill to 'new Brockley' rename itself 'The Brockley Badgerpot'.
There are people on this site who are unable to see any issue in terms other than the politics of race and class.
Here we have a simple issue of illegal behaviour leading to serious crime in Brockley. Something that has blighted the area for years.
It appears that something is being done about it and this is a very welcome development for those who live near these troublespots.
If people want to debate social inequality, the state of race relations or the legalisation of drugs, there are better places to do that than a website that is concerned with very localised news of which shops are opening or closing.
I am left wondering if other local community websites suffer from as much mischievous trolling as this site.
This is just so ridiculous.... several businesses flagrantly break the law and make lives miserable for local residents and all people like kolp can do is play the race card! These people broke the law and got away with it for many years. Perhaps in your eyes dealing in 'recreationals'is something that the police should perpetually turn a blind eye to... These people got away with this for long enough as it is.... Why should the police continue to turn a blind eye? Why is it ok to trade recreational drugs etc? How would you feel if these shops ran a child prostitution racket would it be ok for the police to ignore that?
My comments are not 'playing' or 'trolling', I raised concerns and questions as to why community relations have broken down so badly.
The person who raised/played the race card was "furious", remember that.
There's lots of claim/ counter claim about anti-social behaviour from chicken bones, loud music to gunshots.
Some complaints are more reasonable than others.
My comments are about this have largely been about drilling down to the facts, trying to find out what's really going on here.
Headhunter frankly I think the argument you made and the way you made it "child prostitution"?!? is trolling.
All I know about what's gone on UBR comes from what I've read here over the years, but I would have thought it was obvious why community relations have broken down so badly - if you mean relations between the shop proprietors and the people hanging about there on the one hand, and some (if not all) of the local residents of UBR on the other hand.
Having music played so loudly that you and your children can't speak, finding pools of urine on your front path, having to walk into the road with your children because the loiterers won't move aside on the pavement, guns being fired by inebriated partygoers - not exactly conducive to good community relations, is it?
Sleep, not speak!
@Kolp. 'Some complaints are more reasonable than others'.
Who appointed you arbiter?
Go after the argument not me (as I've said before)
Are all the complaints reasonable justification to shut down the shop due to anti-social practices? Chicken bones on the street?
Was it bad luck or intrinsic to the businesses that a guns and gunshots were at a party they were associated with.
Everyone, not just me, should be interested in the facts of this.
About as intrinsic as 'plumbing supplies' is to the plumbing supply shop I'd say
This area has a history of commercial premises being used as a social club/gambling/drug dealing base for local criminals.
The Brockley Barge in its previous incarnation as the Breakspeares Arms was a crack pub, which blighted the area for many years.
The Rosemary Branch, or whatever it is called now, was until recently controlled by a gang of criminals.
Crofton Park had the Alpha Club.
There are many other examples. If you live around here long enough you get to know where they are.
These shops and others around Brockley Cross are similar. They are just a front. No-one goes into those takeaways for the tasty food. They go in for the little packet drugs that are the main business.
Criminals are parasites and they cause great damage to themselves, those close to them and the wider community.
Where they are found to be running an illegal business and causing distress to the neighbours, the authorities should close them down. Efforts should be made to treat drug addiction as a public health issue.
I wonder if I am right in thinking that some of the comments here are the opinions of student types who experimenting with a lifestyle that involves living on the edge.
Trainspotting in Brockley?
Was the above comment
written by
Lou Baker?
...Anyway
"These shops and others around Brockley Cross are similar. They are just a front. No-one goes into those takeaways for the tasty food. They go in for the little packet drugs that are the main business."
What bollocks.
Was that plumbing supplies shop still trading? I thought it went out of business quite some time ago.
I see everyone's still getting along nicely. That's good.
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