21 January 2010
Campaigning youngsters are backing Waltham Forest Council’s calls for more police and have signed up 800 new people to back the campaign.
Young people representing The East London Communities Organisation (TELCO) hand delivered 800 signed pledge cards, backing the Council's "We're Calling For Back Up" campaign to Waltham Forest Town Hall in Walthamstow, on Thursday 21 January bringing the total number of people supporting the campaign to 7,100.
The Council launched the campaign in August last year because there are disproportionate levels of serious crime in Waltham Forest and low levels of police compared to boroughs with similar crime rates such as Hackney, which has 199 more police officers.
Waltham Forest Council’s leader, Cllr Chris Robbins, said:
“I’m extremely grateful that TELCO has decided to support our campaign in such a significant manner. “We will continue to put pressure on Boris Johnson, as chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, to do something about the disproportionately low level of police we have in Waltham Forest. “We have the highest rate of serious crime in London and desperately need 120 more officers to address this worrying statistic. ”I fully support the CitySafe campaign and look forward to working with young people to help make this borough a safer place."Aisha Awan, CitySafe Champion at Sir George Monoux College, said:
“With the CitySafe Campaign, young people in Waltham Forest are not the problem - we are the solution. So we’ve worked hard supporting the We're Calling for back-up campaign and we can’t wait to work with the Council and Police to start signing up CitySafe Havens so we can be safe in the borough.”Matthew Bolton, TELCO Organiser, said:
“With TELCO’s CitySafe Campaign, schools, colleges, churches and mosques are working together to make the borough safer. We give our full support to the We're calling for backup campaign and are pleased to be working with the Council on CitySafe.”More information on the Council's We're Calling For Back Up Campaign