VIDEO: Clear, Hold, Build-‘It’s really making a difference here in Harold Hill’.

MP Julia Lopez visits Hilldene shops to see the positive impact the Home Office Initiative is making in an area plagued by shoplifters.

On Friday 2 February, Harold Hill community champions Simon Ford and Jan Sargeant joined the local MP Julia Lopez to go on a walkabout with police officers along Hilldene Avenue. The shopping centre had been blighted by shoplifters, with shop workers being threatened, abused and assaulted on a regular basis. Staff in the Co-op, Greggs and Sainsburys had all spoken with the Havering Daily about their daily battle to stop shoplifters and the horrendous challenges they faced.

Police launched the Home Office Initiative ‘Clear,Hold, Build,’ last year and now, the very positive results are showing with prolific shoplifters arrested, shoplifting gangs broken up and stopped in their tracks and the level of everyday shoplifting dropping drastically.

Inspector Routley spoke with local shop keepers about the ongoing issues in Harold Hill and was able to hear for himself how the new initiative has now started to really make a difference across the area.

Local resident Emilia joined officers on the walkabout and told the Havering Daily: “This initiative has really made a difference here. In the evening it is safer now, we don’t see the same level of anti social behaviour.”

The Hornchurch and Upminster MP met with the Chair of the Farnham Road Shopkeepers Association, Simon Ford, Inspector Charlie Routley, the tactical lead for the project and local traders to see first-hand how the project is helping to support shopkeepers and make the shopping centre safer for visitors and traders alike. As part of her visit to Farnham Road she also met the owners of Funland VR Amusement, who are officially opening to the public this weekend, to see the new entertainments they are bringing to the shopping district.

Commenting after the visit, Julia Lopez MP said:

‘I am very grateful to Simon Ford, Inspector Routley and all those passionate about improving the shopping area for taking the time to tour the Clear, Hold, Build project area with me this morning. In my regular discussions with the Superintendent and BCU Commander I have highlighted a number of constituency cases in this location and I am very pleased to see the initiative shown by local officers in launching one of the first Clear, Hold, Build projects by the Met.

It is clear from my discussions with traders this morning that they very much support this Home Office initiative and that the project is already having a significant impact, with over 150 cannabis plants worth over £100,000 recovered by officers just days after the project launched in December. The police’s targeted action has also seen one of the most prolific shoplifters operating in Farnham Road arrested and recently receive a custodial sentence. I look forward to working with all stakeholders to ensure that we maximise the potential of this project and, to assist in the ‘build’ phase of the program, have written in support of an application for lottery funding to help secure a brand-new counselling provision for a nearby youth club operating from the MyPlace Centre.’

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