High crime area is denied CCTV

9:47am Wednesday 12th September 2001

CONEY Hall traders are calling for CCTV cameras before “someone is killed”.

The move comes after a recent spate of armed robberies and vandalism led to a 33 per cent rise in crime.

But the traders were told they will have to wait because a bid for funds from Bromley Council to the Home Office was unsuccessful.

The number of reported crimes in Coney Hall Parade from January to July were 64, compared to 48 during the same period last year.

Worried traders have formed an action group to combat the rise in crime. Action group spokesman Edward Dungate, 52, who owns Gray & Dungate Builders, said they appealed for the council's help as the situation was getting “beyond a joke”.

“I have asked the council for CCTV cameras as someone's going to get killed before long,” he said.

West Kent News, a newsagent's shop on Croydon Road, was robbed by two masked men armed with a knife and a steel rod on August 18.

Shop manager Peter Bedborough, 37, was behind the counter when the pair entered, waving their weapons around.

He said: “One of the men pushed me to the back of the shop and stuck the paperboy in the toilet.

“He pushed a steel rod in my stomach and said don't f*** with us.”

The robbers wore stockings over their heads and ran off with the till and the contents of the newly-stocked cigarette display.

Other incidents in the area have included a robbery at Croydon Road's Focus DIY store in which three robbers armed with a baseball bat and a knife attacked the manager and got away with £9,000 from the safe.

There was also a ram raid on Unwins off licence in which cigarettes and spirits worth £600 were stolen.

While a bid for CCTV cameras in the Cray Valley area was accepted last month, a similar bid for West Wickham was not approved by the Home Office.

The area's councillor Len Tutt, who is backing the campaign for cameras, said the next opportunity for the council to bid for CCTV for Coney Hall would be after next April.

In the meantime, Bromley police have promised to take action.

Police spokesman Inspector Paul Etheridge said: “We will target Coney Hall as an area of concern, put patrols there and work with traders to improve their security.”

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