Hit squad set up in crime hotspot

A new round-the-clock council hit squad is to be created in a bid to rid London's most crime-plagued borough of drunks and beggars, litter louts and yobs.

Undercover council officers will use surveillance to gather evidence against vandals, while on-the-spot fines will be introduced for dropping litter and dumping rubbish on the streets in Lambeth.

Convicted drug dealers and evicted council tenants will be named and shamed in local newspapers as part of the new zerotolerance approach in the borough.

And "pests who go round spitting, urinating, dropping litter, letting their dogs foul footpaths, or cycling on pavements" will be targeted for legal action.

The new team of dozens of officers from all council departments, the first of its kind in Britain, is set to be in place by November. Council leader Tom Franklin is billing it as a "New York-style anti-social behaviour hit squad" and wants it to be unashamedly hardline. He has told officials to review all of their existing, but rarely-used powers.

The move will be welcomed by police chiefs and the Government as a sign of local authorities accepting their share of responsibility for tackling disorder. However, Tory councillors immediately branded it "a hollow election gimmick which should be viewed with a healthy note of scepticism", accusing the Labour-run borough of cutting back on anti-graffiti patrols and failing to provide proper activities to divert the young away from crime. Lambeth Tory leader John Whelan said: "They have failed to live up to earlier promises to deal with aggressive beggars and street drinkers and they have cut investment from the graffiti-buster service."

Mr Franklin said: "The council has been too soft on those whose selfish actions spoil the quality of life for everyone else." The council is concerned with "the whole range" of anti-social behaviour from drug dealing on the streets to prostitutes, nuisance neighbours and noise pests, he added.

He wants the team actively looking for offenders and improving the way they gather CCTV evidence. Lambeth already has a nuisance neighbours hit squad, which has seen evictions rise from almost none to 95 a year.

Mr Franklin said: "We are starting to see a change of culture on housing estates in Lambeth because people know they can't get away with that sort of behaviour. Over the next four years we want to develop the idea so people are not afraid to walk the streets."

If the initiative succeeds, councils across the country may follow suit. Lambeth is the street robbery capital of Britain, with the worst burglary rates in London and serious problems with gun crime linked to the crack cocaine trade. But Mr Franklin says it is the daily grind of anti-social behaviour which feeds fear of crime in the area.