Portland Street Again - Campaign Day 6

It will come as little surprise to some that anti-social behaviour is one of the main issues for many people. Sadly, it is often people who live in their own area who spoil it. This was brought home forcefully to me today when, in Portland Street, I met a young couple. Having now been in hundreds of stairwells I would have to give this one the prize of 'most graffitied'. It was in a terrible state.

This was a bought house in a stairwell that was a mixture of council and bought. When I saw the mess and suggested to the couple that they apply, as a stair, for an intercom system, they told me that the graffiti and minor vandalism had been done by young people up the stair! And that the council were installing an intercom system to help prove that the graffiti was done by people in the stairwell.

Now once the council have evidence, then something can be done, but until the intercom is installed the evidence cannot be gathered, and...if the intercom is broken? Does that invalidate the evidence that it is people inside not outside doing the graffiti? It does not appear a strategy that is well-thought through.

Issues like this make a huge difference to the quality of people's lives and it is one where action is important.