Agenda item

• An Overview – Councillor Martin Seaton

• Walworth Road and East Street Market businesses; and supporting young people 

• Walworth – young people’s perspective (Walworth Youth Community Council)

• Community Safety and Policing – Sgt Daly, East Walworth Safer Neighbourhoods Team

The chair said that in light of the recent disturbances, it was important to look forward positively and focus on how the Walworth area could be improved.

A representative of the East Street Market traders and businesses said that a lot of  business had disappeared from the area and that rents had gone up, making things difficult for many businesses.

Support for riot-affected businesses

Gordon Mole, Project Development Manager: Enterprise and Programmes, outlined what help there was available to the 141 businesses which had reported direct damage, looting and disruption to trade as a result of disturbances. The majority of businesses affected were smaller independent retailers, with approximately 70 per cent of traders suffering damage being non-chain operations. Patrols and surveys by Community Wardens had been stepped up, and the Southwark Council Business Desk had been activated to provide advice and support.  Some of the support provided was:

• Business rates hardship relief for affected businesses
• £100,000 Emergency Small Business Recovery Fund for affected businesses
• Providing information on other sources of support – insurance, legal, funds (e.g. Riot Damages Act and High Street Fund)
• Accessing funding through Mayor of London’s recovery fund.

In addition to this, Southwark provided the following types of business support:

• Prioritising affected businesses for business support
• Launched new Business Advisory Service with GLE-One London and Lewisham Council to support new and existing businesses
• Advisers can visit businesses to advise on business planning, pitching for finance, marketing and contingency planning.

Answering questions from the floor and from councillors, Gordon responded that the council had put in for a bid for funding to support businesses with the Mayor of London. The council’s emergency fund had a turn around time of five working days.  Gordon gave important numbers for businesses to call in relation to this. He advised all business to get their claims in as soon as possible. The council’s business advice section would be able to provide help:

• Southwark Council Business Desk:    020 7525 5353
• Business Rates Hardship Relief:   020 7525 5505
• Business Support (GLE-One London):   020 7403 0300

ACTION: Gordon Mole to feedback on the progress of the bid to attract funding for businesses in Southwark from the Mayor of London, and how much had been applied for, and how much funding has already been given to Walworth businesses. 

ACTION: Gordon Mole to provide feedback as to the number and nature of the training and construction jobs for local people the Elephant and Castle regeneration will generate. 

The chair encouraged attendees to speak to their councillors if they had further comments to make.

Supporting young people

Nick Wolff, Project Development Manager, said that unemployment for young people 18-21 had gone up to 8.3% from 4.2% in June 2008. It was predicted that there would be 1,000 more young people unemployed in the next three years in Southwark. Answering questions from the floor, he outlined that the council had the following approaches to support young people, in economic terms:

• Delivering the Connexions service, and working with Southwark College to get some European funding to provide training for young people
• Working with the Education Business Alliance to provide education through Southwark Works
• Council apprenticeships with 20 new apprentices starting this October
• A three-year council programme, called Youth Fund, which provided the following:
  • Help those young people affected by the loss of their educational maintenance allowance,
  • Five annual scholarships for university tuition fees, and
  • Signposting of work placements with different providers, skills training for people 16-24 who are leaving education and who have problems finding their first job.
• Large regeneration activities, such as the Heygate estate and the Elephant and Castle shopping centre, would also create apprenticeship opportunities.

The chair requested for this topic to be brought back to also get views of young people.

Answering questions from the floor, Nick Wolff said that by doing apprenticeships and work programmes, young people would acquire skills which could lead to employment. The council had invited proposals from providers for training programmes, and would be happy for these to include some incentives for young people to join the programmes. The 14-19 team was leading these efforts and from April next year, a new strategy would be in place. In terms of using the detached youth teams and linking in with the Elephant and Castle regeneration, he said that these efforts were on-going and had been for several years. The parties were in the process of agreeing a strategy and outcomes.

Police feedback

PC Haughey and PC Webster from East Walworth Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) said that on the whole robberies around Elephant and Castle had decreased and anti-social behaviour (ASB) on the Salisbury Estate had fallen. Following the disturbances in August, high visibility patrols had been stepped up. Arrests for violence, disorder and looting were continuing, and more than 1,500 people had been arrested. CCTV was being used to identify offenders.

The dates of the SNT meetings were as follows:

• East Walworth: Public meeting - Tue 04 October 2011, 19:00 - Salisbury TRA SE17 1BY
• Faraday: Street briefing - Thu 06 October 2011, 14:30 - Outside Trafalgar house, Bronte Close, SE17 2XE
• Newington – Street briefing - Wed 05 October 2011, 11:00 - Maddock Way, Brandon Estate, SE17 3NH

Questions were raised about how some groups’ concerns about stop and search policies were going to be addressed, what the local stop and search statistics were, and what would happen, if there were further disturbances. PC Webster explained that there was a stop and search committee which invited young people to come and give their views on stop and search procedures and practice. He went on to explain that the experiences of the recent disturbances were being fed into plans about how to respond in case of future disturbances.

ACTION: SNTs to provide information on the following to the next Community Council meeting:

1. Stop and search figures for Walworth 
2. Whether those causing the disturbances in the Walworth area had been local people, or whether they had travelled there

A resident commented that higher council rents, and the tightening of the rules on Housing Benefit would push more people into the hidden economy which needed to be addressed.

The chair thanked the police for all the hard work they had done in the face of recent events.