Highly trained teams are hunting properties that are easy to break into – luckily they are police officers giving home security advice to absent minded residents. 

Waltham Forest’s police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and the Council’s community safety team have worked together to produce hundreds of cards which can be used to identify how a home is vulnerable to burglars. 

The Safer Neighbourhood Team officers patrol the borough until they spot a vacant home that could be easily broken into.

They fill in a card and post it through the letter box to advise the owner how to secure their property more effectively. 

Although burglary is down in Waltham Forest over the last year,research shows that most homes that are broken into during the summerare targeted because doors or windows are left open. 

The new scheme is a simple but effective way of tackling a very upsetting crime.

Each card has a number of tick boxes about problems like windows being left open. Police officers will tick the relevant box and post the card.  Residents are likely to be a bit surprised to find these cards lying on their doorstep, but it’s better than coming home to find you’ve been robbed by burglars. 

To find out more about home security ring the Council’s Community Safety Team on 020 8496 3000 or your Police Safer Neighbourhood Team on 020 8556 8855

Waltham Forest Council is declaring war on dog owners who persistently let their pets foul the borough and don’t bother cleaning up after them.

Street Wardens, Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams and enforcement officers will be patrolling the areas most affected by the issue, at the times most often visited by dog owners.

Anyone who is spotted failing to clean up after their animal will be asked to do so, and issued with a fixed penalty notice if they refuse.

Bags for dog owners will also be available at the Council’s Waltham Forest Direct shops.

 Waltham Forest Council’s spokesperson for Community Safety, Enforcement and Protection, said:

“Dogowners who refuse to clean up after their pets are exhibiting disgusting, anti social and hazardous behaviour towards other residents. “If you own a pet you need to take responsibility for its welfare and for cleaning up after it. People who are unwilling to do that, will be targeted and they will be punished.

It’s as simple as that. “We are sick of some dog owners using this borough as a toilet. We want to make Waltham Forest a place where people aspire to live and we won’t do that if people can’t be bothered to clean up after their pets.” 

To report dog fouling, contact Waltham Forest Direct on 020 84896 3000.

Residents can collect dog bags from WFD Shops in the following locations:

Leyton, 774-776 High Road; Walthamstow, 137 Hoe Street; Leytonstone, 819 High Road. 

Waltham Forest police have launched week-long Operations to tackle knife crime and disorder on the borough’s transport links.

The aim of the initiatives, which came just days after the British Crime Survey showed violent crime was dropping, is to tackle knife crime and offences on the tube, train and bus network.  Officers herded passengers through high tech knife arches to search for hidden weapons at Blackhorse Road and Leytonstone Tube Stations and made a number of arrests.These officers also offered crime prevention advice, tackled fare dodgers with Transport for London staff and mounted high visibility patrols at bus, tube and rail stations across the borough.

Chief Inspector Andy Norfolk from Waltham Forest Police, said: “Knife crime has gone down in this borough and has also dropped nationally but that doesn’t take away the impact it has on people’s lives.  “There are a small number of people who think it is acceptable to carry a knife and those people will be targeted and arrested.

“Tackling the problem of knife crime is a challenge and everyone has a part to play in rising to that challenge – parents, the police, the local authority and the media.”

Your local FOCUS team want tough action to be taken against those caught selling knives to children and young people. 

Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats revealed that half of all traders tested in Waltham Forest had attempted to sell knives to underage buyers.  

The worrying statistics come on the back of nationwide figures for prosecutions which reveal that, in the last five years, not one person has been sent to prison for the illegal sale of knives to children.

 Cllr Peter Woollcott says that the stats reveal “a completely inadequate deterrent to unscrupulous shop keepers who flout the law to sell these weapons to children and young people,”  

Cllr Peter Woollcott added: 

“The number of local traders who are apparently prepared to sell knifes to young people is extremely worrying. 

  “Liberal Democrats will be calling for officers to carry out further test purchasing programmes in an effort to really drive this message home.” 

“We believe that further tests must be carried out and that the courts must take a much stronger stand on this issue. 

“Cutting the supply of knives will be one of the most effective ways to reducing knife crime in the first place.”  

Lib Dems want to tackle anti-social behaviour the new Youth Crime Strategy, focuses on keeping `kids’ out of custody and into positive behaviour in the community. Chris Huhne M.P. Home Affairs has said

`At present 75% of children taken into custody are then more likely to re-offend and commit a worse offence’

Lib.Dems believe in tackling youth crime, by getting youngsters to put something back into the community, like cleaning off graffiti or clearing overgrown church yards or removing fly-tipping or working on community projects.

In Higham Hill we realise that well locally organised youth activities are important to keep youngsters in making a positive contribution.

We recognise the good work achieved by the pupils of George Monoux, who made the `Litter is Bitter’ DVD, as part of one Walthamstow West Community project and the `Environment Project’  led by Carmela Crute-Jones from the Hornbeam Centre to involve primary years and Teachers in building an audit for a greener and cleaner planet.

There has been the example of the fantastic response to the campaign petition to restore the Lloyd Park Theatre that is the `brainchild’ of the teenager Caulfield twins mentored by Cllr Bob Wheatley in William Morris Ward.
This tremendous effort by two youngsters is a true positive statement of youth caring for their community.

Higham Hill Focus Team Councillors, Smith, Meiszner and Woollcott advise our residents to check that their doors are securely locked, as Chief Superintendent Mark Benbow, has said that across the Borough `house burglaries have reached epidemic levels’.

A good part of the increase of intruders into peoples homes, is due to UPVC doors not being secured properly. 

House burglaries have shot up by 36% over the first three months, this year alone.

The Focus Team, Cllrs Smith, Woollcott and Meiszner have reported anti-social behaviour in the ally between Calton Road and Millfield Avenue. 

We have contacted the Safer Neighbourhood team and the councils anti-social officers.

We expect to hear from them soon.

 If you have any evidence then please contact one of us.