Vandalism in Mill Hill - Time for the council to get serious

This year, the Barnet Eye has seen several acts of vandalism in the Mill Hill Broadway. Here are just a couple of incidents that we're referring to from Mill Hill Twitter feeds.

Fest banners on Broadway ripped 10&12 May by unknown person in targeted & callous attack w/ blade! Contact 101 if you have info. Plz RT - Ta pic.twitter.com/9K9TeTj5hy

— Mill Hill Music Fest (@millhillfest) May 13, 2017

Rather upsetting to see more mindless vandalism in Mill Hill Broadway pic.twitter.com/36uerJAZBB

— Roger Tichborne/RogT (@Barneteye) September 17, 2017

The Mill Hill Broadway Blog also reported a night of vandalism in August, with some quite alarming pictures. As a result of the vandalism to the Mill Hill Music Festival Banners in May, I made a very disturbimg discovery. Mill Hill is monitored by Barnet Council CCTV cameras, which many residents believe are designed to make sure such low level crime is detected. When we reported the slashing of the festival banners, we were told that the council does not work with the police to resolve such crimes. Whilst you may not think that the slashing of banners is a serious issue, the perpetrators were clearly carrying large blades and were intent on causing damage. What would have happened if anyone had disturbed them? Despite this, there was no interest from either the local Police or the local Council in making any serious effort to identify the people responsible.

It is not only the Broadway. Mill Hill Park has seen some atrocious acts of vandalism, which seem to only serve the purpose of making the park less pleasant. We need a council that takes such issues seriously and get working with the police. We believe that if young people get into the habit of carrying blades, smashing up shops and civic amenities and clearly not worrying about the consequences, out locality will become a dangerous and dire place to live. It is also clear that the local councillors in Mill Hill have no interest in engaing with the Police to do anything about it. There is a council election next year. This will give us an opportunity to kick them out and get some new councillors in Mill Hill who are prepared to get the Police working with the Council to use the expensive CCTV system to serve the people of the Mill Hill properly and make vandals and thugs think again.




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