Councillors unanimously approved an expansion of Greenwich Council's use mobile CCTV cameras to tackle anti-social behaviour and the recruitment of additional Community Safety Enforcement Officers this week, after Labour-run Greenwich Council belatedly adopted proposals put forward by Conservative councillors at the Town Hall.
The move will see the Council procure an additional 8 mobile CCTV units and recruit 8 additional Community Safety Enforcement Officers, and comes after two years of delay from Labour councillors on measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Labour councillors previously voted down repeated Conservative proposals to expand the use of mobile CCTV starting in February 2023, and later voted to reject a fully costed plan to fund additional Community Safety Enforcement Officers in March 2025. Since these measures were blocked, concerns from residents about anti-social behaviour have only increased, with Greenwich Labour forced to belatedly adopt the proposals as part of a new investment package funded by one-off developer contributions.
At the same meeting, Labour councillors voted against a Conservative amendment calling for the Council to prioritise taking action against council tenants who persistently demonstrate anti-social behaviour in violation of their tenancy agreement, making neighbours lives a misery.
Councillor Matt Hartley, Leader of Greenwich Conservatives, questioned why it has taken Labour so long to act on anti-social behaviour, and why it has taken an election zooming into view to force them to act. He said: "I am pleased that residents will now see the benefit of additional mobile CCTV cameras and a bigger team of Community Safety Enforcement Officers in our Town Centres - but it shouldn't have taken 2 years of dither and delay for Greenwich Labour to adopt these Conservative proposals. This has been the very opposite of their claims to be 'getting things done' - instead they've been getting things wrong for years.
"Residents should be asking themselves, why has it taken an election on the horizon to force Labour to act on their concerns about anti-social behaviour? And what's the point of voting Labour if all they do is implement Conservative policies to address the borough's problems, but years after they are proposed?"
Councillor Charlie Davis, Deputy Leader of Greenwich Conservatives, added: "The latest example of Labour councillors dragging their heels is on the issue of anti-social behaviour committed by council tenants - which Greenwich Council isn't doing nearly enough about. Labour councillors may have voted against our call to prioritise this, but we will keep pressuring them to take this issue more seriously."
Conservative councillors have also said they will lobby for the Council to deploy mobile CCTV camears more fairly across the whole of the borough, after figures previously revealed they had almost never been used south of Eltham High Street.
Watch the debate online here and read the Conservative proposals here
