Hounslow Council and police to praise community spirit in annual awards

2:00pm Thursday 14th January 2010

By Ian Mason

Community crime fighters are to be rewarded for helping tackle law-breakers and anti-social behaviour across the borough.

Hounslow Community Safety Partnership - a venture linking the council and police - is looking for nominations for an annual reward and recognition scheme.

It is designed to celebrate those community-spirited residents who have stood up for their neighbours and taken action in the fight against crime.

Members of Hounslow’s Corporation Avenue Residents' Association are “100 per cent” behind the initiative - having bagged themselves an award by uniting to bring down burglary rates in their area.

Community crime fighter extraordinaire and one of the group’s figureheads, Mal Bartram, decided her community had suffered enough from yobs and thieves and pledged to fight back.

The 56-year-old said: “It was a few years ago, my daughter had bought a sports car and somebody came along one night and kicked the wing mirror off.

In response, Mrs Bartram and several neighbours, who had all been frightened by youths loitering in alleys, formed their association and launched a campaign to fence the area off to strangers. Mrs Bartram even wrote to the Queen and then-Prime Minister Tony Blair asking for support.

Eventually the group secured funding for the project from Hounslow Council and their community, which was once plagued by dozens of attempted and successful burglaries each year, is now virtually crime free.

Mrs Bartram said: “We cannot stop now - if there’s a whole estate united [the authorities] have got to listen.

“We only want what’s right, everybody has to feel safe in their own homes.”

Councillor Paul Fisher, lead member community safety at the council, said: “We are lucky to have so many selfless, community-minded, people in the borough who won’t just stand idly by and let their community be ruined by crime.

“Their motivation isn’t for praise or personal gain, but we all owe them our thanks and this is a chance to do that.”

Nominations can be made January 29 by visiting hounslow.gov.uk/reward_recognition_nomination_scheme or forms can be obtained from neighbourhood community safety coordinators.