Gang crime affecting revellers, Lambeth Council told

Gang crime is increasingly impacting partygoers in Clapham High Street

Gang crime is increasingly affecting partygoers in south London, a council has heard.

Wardens deployed for antisocial revellers in Clapham High Street are more often having to deal with gang violence instead.

Gangsters have even chased people down the road with knives, a business group member said.

Jeremy Keates said he was struggling to keep security staff because of the uptick in violence.

He said that the wardens, employed by Clapham Business Improvement District (BID), have been working more as a "gang management service" in recent months.

The wardens have had their body-worn cameras ripped off and been threatened with revenge attacks, leaving them fearful of phoning the police, Mr Keates told Lambeth Council.

'Beat you until you're unconscious'

"We've had a really challenging last six months.

"We've had a warden service, that is principally designed to deal with low-level antisocial behaviour as a result of intoxication, in more recent months become a gang-management service on the high street."

He said that Clapham BID wardens had attended at least 661 incidents in the past 12 months.

When their weekend patrols were suspended between October and November, a woman was kidnapped and there were two stabbings — one fatal — on the high street, he added.

Gang crime affecting clubgoers is also an issue in Vauxhall, the council meeting was told.

Bernard Collier from business group Vauxhall One said he looked back on pre-pandemic violence as "halcyon days", compared with the crimes he had seen since Christmas.

He told the meeting: "If you stop someone mugging you, you will be pounced on by about 16 different people and they will beat you until you're unconscious. Last weekend that happened to somebody."

Mr Collier said "organised, violent criminals" were targeting the areas.

He added: "We've heard over a number of years that we can't have people [police] in the area at the time of turning out of nightclubs between 4am and 6am because of the turning over of shifts; can we really not have something that adapts to the needs of the night-time economy in general?"

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