QUIET ROAD A 'HOTSPOT' FOR CRIME - Agar Place residents stunned as street is named among country's worst
Published: 03 February 2011
by JAMIE WELHAM
RESIDENTS living on a street labelled one of the worst crime hotspots in Britain have hit back, insisting figures on a controversial Home Office website do not match reality.
Agar Place, a quiet cobbled street of just five Victorian houses and a garage, was named number seven in the top 10 worst streets for anti-social behaviour in the entire country on a new online crime mapping site launched by Whitehall this week.
It featured highly even though, at just 50 metres, it is one of the shortest roads in Camden.
According to the site, the street, off Agar Grove in Camden Town, recorded 59 incidents of anti-social behaviour in December.
The figure was branded “ridiculous” by those living in the street, who believe it is down to a police miscalculation or “a very frightened old lady”.
Residents are now worried the tag of a trouble spot may tarnish their neighbourhood and have a knock-on effect on insurance premiums.
Street by street crime figures for the whole country were made available to view online on the first time at www.police.uk/ site on Tuesday.
It allows people to enter their postcode and obtain records of burglary, robbery, violence, car crime and anti-social behaviour and is said to mark a new era of “transparency” in crime.
But resident James Palmer, who has lived in Agar Place for three years, said: “It’s not Chelsea here, but it’s hardly a ghetto either. It seems pretty unfair to me because it makes the street look bad. I’m thinking maybe it’s one frightened old lady or just a mistake.
“I don’t think it will affect house prices but it could affect insurance. I’ve never experienced any problems, nor have I seen anything. I heard Agar Grove used to have a lot of prostitutes, but I’ve never seen anything there either.”
Others questioned the reliability of the figures used in the flagship project,
Christos Chakizamana, who also lives in Agar Place, said: “I can’t believe it’s true. I have never heard or seen anything and it’s hardly a street. I’m not sure what the point of this map is. It can’t be much use if it’s not accurate. Maybe it is something to do with flats.”
A spokeswoman for Camden Police said officers were “looking into” the figure but said they were unable to comment any further at this stage.
Despite its gritty reputation, neighbouring Agar Grove, which runs between St Pancras Way and York Way and is almost a mile long, only recorded 12 incidents of anti-social behaviour, one incident of violent crime and one labelled as “other”, which can include criminal damage, shoplifting and drug offences, in December.
Two leafy trees sit at either end of Agar Place, which was congested with black cabs using a taxi garage when the New Journal visited yesterday (Wednesday).
James Bartram, who works at Camden Cab Company, said: “We’ve never seen any anti-social behaviour and we’re here every day.”
Agar Place faces a local authority housing block and runs up to a wall which separates the road from railway sidings. Critics suggest the figure is distorted because police may log the road as the scene of an incident which happened in one of the nearby estates connected to the road by a series of unmarked paths by the railway line.
Town Hall crime chief Councillor Abdul Hai called the website “dangerous”, claiming it risked heightening problems in poor communities.
He added: “They will polarise Camden further and entrench problems in areas that suffer from poverty. It will stop people going to certain areas, stop investment and hamper community building.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Councillor Matt Sanders said the Labour-run council should not dismiss the statistics.
He added: “It’s sadly no surprise that some of our streets are amongst the worst affected in the country.
“The council need to be going through these new crime stats street by street, so they can aggressively target those areas with the worst problems.”