Police in Holloway Road cracking down on illegal traders

POLICE were out in Holloway Road clamping down on “illegal street traders”, but residents say they need to get their priorities straight.

Kim Chua, who has been living in Holloway for more than 30 years, said the traders set out their stalls all the way from Halifax to Nationwide.

“It’s annoying because when you come out of the shops, you can’t use the pavements, and you see people struggling with buggies,” she said. “But my priority is the drug dealing. They come around here at all hours of the day and night, in flash cars, with people dropping off parcels and picking them up.”

She added that she has reported the incidents to the police, but had seen little improvement. “The police should be spending less time on the illegal street traders and more time on the drugs,” she said.

Ms Chua’s neighbour, Ernie Thompson agreed. “With all that we’ve got going on, I don’t blame people for trying to survive [by trading]. You can’t genuinely blame people for trying to earn a bob to put food on the table, and they haven’t got the money for a permit. They’ve got books, old kettles [but] I think the police should be focusing their efforts on other things.”

Kevin Patal, who works at Shoezone on the street where traders congregate, said: “If they can’t get a permit for the market, then they come and sell their things on the street.”

He added: “It’s normally every Saturday and Sunday. They come and set up, and normally if it’s directly outside the shop, we tell them to move, but otherwise we don’t really mind.”

Mr Patal added the anti-social behaviour witnessed by residents and shop-keepers was severe, but not linked to the “illegal traders”, adding: “The biggest problem is that every day you get people who walk up and down, crazy drunk people, people on drugs, screaming down the whole road [but] that’s not increased because of the street sellers.”