Prostitution around Brixton Hill
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
A noticeable rise in the number of prostitutes working in the Tulse Hill and Brixton Hill areas has followed the disbandment of Brixton Police’s dedicated Vice-Squad. I am very concerned about this and residents are questioning what the Police and the Council are doing about it.
Myself and local Labour Cllrs Toren Smith, Ade Aminu and Marcia Cameron have worked with local residents to come up with some suggestions. We are proposing the following:
- More Police resources devoted to assist the local Safer Neighbourhood Police team with an early review of the impact of the loss of the vice-squad;
- The Council should put pressure on London Mayor Boris Johnson to speed up the delivery of the new gate at the Brixton Hill end of Josephine Avenue;
- The Council should begin working up an area wide traffic management plan to stop kerb crawling, so that any displacement from the closure of Josephine Avenue can be dealt with swiftly;
- The Council should limit the 3am opening hours of the off-licences on Brixton Hill to discourage pimps and prostitutes from the area; and,
- The Council needs to address the derelict site at 85 Brixton Hill.
I have met with both Council my colleagues and the Police to let them know of residents concerns. If you have any further comments to make, please let us know your suggestions using the Contact page here.


Here in Streatham, the shooting of 16 year old James Andre Smartt-Ford at Streatham Ice Rink (outside which I am pictured with a youth worker) on 2 February 2007 was one of the first in a wave of teenage murders to come to national prominence. Months later, on 22 October 2007, there was the shooting of Gary “Curry Cat” Guthrie at the Starlight Room nightclub behind the Ice Rink (the trial of the seven men accused of his murder takes place in January). On 31 March this year a teenager was shot in the face on Tierney Road. This list is by no means exhaustive.
Firstly, I think it is important to get these issues in perspective. Yes there is a problem – no one would deny that when faced with the statistics of young people tragically killed over the last 18 months – but it is still a minority engaging in this kind of violence. The Home Office estimates that just 5% of young people are responsible for half of all youth crime, so lets not demonise the majority of them. Mark Easton, BBC News’ Home Affairs editor (right) did a very good blog this week on our teenagers – “
Elements of the 
Gun and knife crime is a particular concern for residents of Streatham, Brixton Hill, Tulse Hill and Clapham, given some of the high profile reported incidents occurring here recently. Only a couple of months ago, on 31 March 2008, a 15 year old teenager was shot in Streatham.