Blair due to join Damilola tribute

Tony Blair is expected to lead tributes this week marking the anniversary of the death of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor.

The Prime Minister is due to go to South-East London as community groups, religious leaders and council chiefs commemorate the boy who died after being attacked in a stairwell near his home on the North Peckham estate.

The Archbishop of Canterbury will lead a service for all denominations at St Luke's Church, Peckham, tomorrow and Damilola's parents will unveil a memorial of him to be located in a local school. A Trust is also being set up in his memory.

But Peckham residents say they have been let down by the authorities who promised safety improvements in the wake of Damilola's death.

On Friday the Evening Standard revealed that Damilola's former classmates and teachers from his old school, Oliver Goldsmith Primary, are concerned that youth gangs are still menacing and robbing schoolchildren. Damilola's class teacher, Ian Bosonnet, first raised the alarm in May but initiatives promised have yet to start.

In a statement sent to community leaders after Friday's Evening Standard story, Southwark Borough Police Commander Rod Jarman said a joint strategy has been signed by the council, police and MPs to make youth crime a priority.

Southwark police Superintendent Ed Bateman said a network of "street wardens" will start work in April. In January, volunteers from the school, local security guards and bus company officials begin work on a separate scheme monitoring "bullying hotspots" and five extra police patrol the Peckham regeneration area.