Crime in Merton, South London

28.06.09

On late Saturday/early hours of Sunday upon visiting my parents house in South London, I had the extreme misfortune to have my car broken into and my passenger window smashed to smithereens. Thankfully nothing of very high value was stolen (only my Nokia hands free earpiece - worth about £20) but my door was damaged and some metal bent from where the perpetrator had shoved a screwdriver in to jimie the door frame. The contents of my glove compartment were then rummaged through and left strewn all over the passenger seat with glass everywhere. The only thing taken was my Nokia earpiece, they left my CD's, chargers and even my FM iPod transmitter. Another two cars were also vandalised the same night, so much so we all got the same Crime Number from the police. This is becoming quite a common thing to happen and I only think my car was targeted because it wasn't a familiar one and it had a 'ring mark' on the windscreen from where my Sat Nav had been.

Discovering this was bad enough but what irritated me was that this happened overnight, and I had no reason to leave the house until about midday. So between it happening and my dad discovering it... not one person walking past it bothered to knock on a few doors and say "is that your car?". Bearing in mind my folks live in South London, most of which is made up of terraced houses and street parking (if you are lucky to get a space). Yet no-one saw anything! A few people heard something, including my mum, but each thought it was something else and didn't think to look out the window.

I had for once managed to get a space virtually outside my parents house. Usually I have to park metres up the road and lug my stuff down, but I was pleasantly surprised to get a space one car down from my dad's Disabled space. My folks road has become notorious of late for trying to get a parking space as they only just fall under the cusp of 'lovely' Merton... parts of which do not have metered roads, my parents road being one of them. This results in every Tom, Dick and Harry, every commuter who can't be arsed to pay the meter near the train station 5 mins away, parking their vehicles in an un-metered road. Therefore the actual residents don't have anywhere to park.

The other new problem which has surfaced in the past few months is that my parents road has a monstrosity of a factory in it which back in the 80's/90's was fine because it kept to standard trading hours. Unfortunately in later years it has been bought by a shyster landlord who seems to think he can rent out every available nook and cranny of the eyesore to all and sundry. So now it consists of some crappy furniture warehouse called URgain, (more about that in a minute) a car repair workshop (of which there no health and safety measures appear to be visible) and a printers.

So, starting with URgain... a furniture warehouse. Lets see, their website says this:

"By combining our industry experience with the new possibilities offered by the Internet we created an online furniture shopping experience like no other. From the comfort of your home and away from a pressured sales environment you now have access to our collection of thousands of quality furniture items at low prices, made possible by our lower overheads. In short - we offer the widest choice of furniture and can save you time, money and hassle."

Hmmm... our lower overheads? Online furniture shopping experience? So why is this bloody place always open 24/7 with loads of cars/vans taking up street parking? And why do they send round leaflets saying "come see our stock - ample parking". NO THERE BLOODY ISN'T. It's a residential street!!

As for the so called Garage, this is one unit run by some Eastern European blokes who as far as I can see leave nothing but mess strewn all over the street and seem to trade in whatever hours they like... screw the neighbours! My mother was awoken in the small hours a few weeks back by these idiots unloading a vehicle in the middle of the night, making as much noise as they liked. She actually approached them to say they making such a racket and that they'd woken here and did they have no respect for the residents? Her question was rudely rebuffed with a "we don't give a sh*t" attitude.

My parents have lived in this street since I was 9 months old and they have seen it change beyond recognition. The factory HAS always been there but in its older years it wasn't an issue. It's current owner is not taking into consideration the well-being of any of the street's residents and is renting out as much unit space as possible to make as much cash as he can. Only in doing this he is reducing the street to be a complete eyesore with overflowing bins outside, litter and drainage problems where the factory has an inadequate infrastructure. Merton council have been informed on many many occasions, as have the police, as have other councillors of the state of the place but somehow the owner wheedles his way out of trouble and yet again the residents have to just put up with it.

So as a result, we now have mess, crime and vandalism in what was once a fairly quiet street, and unfortunately myself and 2 others have had to pay the consequences!