Paddick ‘triumph’ – But is drug market really closed?

Published: 22 April 2010
by TOM FOOT

POLICE chief turned Lib Dem politician Brian Paddick has “triumphantly” claimed that cannabis dealers have been banished from Camden Town.

He toured the area while out on the streets electioneering with the party’s parliamentary candidate Jo Shaw and the council’s former housing chief Cllr Chris Naylor on Tuesday afternoon.

“When you used to come to Camden Town you would get asked by every other person if you wanted to buy drugs,” said Mr Paddick. “That may have been what Camden was known for – and some people might say, ‘so what?’ 

“But it is one thing for people to want to come here and buy drugs – it is quite another for innocent people to get confronted by dealers at every step. We need to make it as difficult as possible for the hard users to access deals in Camden.”

Mr Paddick, who failed in his attempt to become Mayor of London in 2008, said it was the Liberal Democrats at the Town Hall who had worked hard to rid NW1 of low-level crime.

He visited the Castle Road council estate in Kentish Town, where tenants said their neighbourhood had been transformed into a haven of tranquillity after large electronic gates were put up two years ago.

Mr Paddick said: “You can’t solve crime with gates – but we need to make sure it’s the criminals who feel uncomfortable around here, not the residents.”

But Silla Carron, a tenants leader and crime campaigner on the Clarence Way Estate, said: “You can still get drugs, but there have been huge changes. That’s been down to two fantastic borough police commanders though – it’s not down to politicians, it’s down to the likes of tenants and the police commanders.”

Rob Higson, once Cllr Naylor’s Labour opponent in Camden Town and Primrose Hill, said: “Brian Paddick and the Lib Dems’ triumphalism is staggering.” He added:  “A small number of PCSOs could not be expected to get a grip on Camden Town’s drug problem. That’s why we are campaigning for a modern fully functioning police station on the Hawley Wharf site by the Lock.”