‘The police are understaffed and not interested in the small people’

• BRAVO to the council for Navigator Square. It means our Archway is less disjointed and polluted.

However as a retired teacher and an Archway resident for 43 years, I lament the lack of the local beat policeman.

The area around Archway station has become unwholesome and unsafe. Crimes go unreported and uninvestigated.

We live in lawless times. Bicycle theft is brazen, commonplace, and the sad remains adorn the cycle racks. My specially adapted electric bike was stolen during a 10-minute visit to the Archway Aldi last week.

Shoplifting is endemic. The police are understaffed and not interested in the small people. Low-level criminality is tolerated.

Their response was: “The crime has been recorded. In my assessment and subsequent decision, there are no proportionate leads that would enable the police to identify a suspect responsible for the crime or to successfully prosecute them”.

I had to point out to the police that Islington CCTV monitors that area. I will wait and see.

Drug and alcohol addiction coupled with inadequate policing have led to the establishment of what can only be described as a begging community in Archway.

Every trip to the shop one is asked for money by several different individuals. There are those who have particular pitches and those who stop you in the street.

Well-meaning folk who give money are only enabling substance abuse and would be better off giving to drug and alcohol charities.

When I asked a policeman “is begging legal”? I was told that most of them have mental health problems or addictions. That didn’t answer the question.

For me it is a savage indictment of our society that if you have money you can pay someone to fluff your neurosis for £50 or £60 per session but there is no facility to deal with the real mental illness and psychosis that is prevalent, wandering our streets.

I am old enough to remember when there were mental health facilities and when a trip to the shops was not unpleasant and unsavoury.

CORNELIUS McAFEE, N19