Councillor: No problem with gangs in Chafford

5:32pm Tuesday 19th March 2013 in News By Matt Abbott

A COUNCILLOR does not believe there is a “gang culture” in Chafford Hundred following a stabbing on the estate two weeks ago.

A 19-year-old was stabbed while walking along Drake Road with his friend on Saturday March 9, by a group of five men aged between 15 and 20.

The Chafford Hundred community forum held a meeting last Tuesday which addressed a perceived problem of gang culture in the town.

Groups of youths are known to gather outside the station and Tesco Express, but Chafford Tory councillor Tunde Ojetola says that while there is clearly an issue, it is not a “gang” problem.

He said: “We are trying to shy away from the word “gangs”. There is a problem of sorts because over the years there have been various issues and they are becoming bigger.

“We’ve got youths who are maybe involved in anti-social behaviour some of who are not residents on the estates.

“The police and members are working together to make sure it’s not getting out of hand and we don’t want to be too heavy handed about this.

“I don’t know what to think it, but from what the victim said to me it seems to be an unprovoked attack."

On the stabbing, Cllr Ojetola said: “It was an unfortunate incident which we’re going to work as hard as possible to make sure it doesn’t repeat itself.”

West Thurrock neighbourhood policing inspector Leigh Norris said that if there are problems, he wants to hear about them.

He said: “I’ve put an operation together and a team and we’ll have a look and see what intelligence we’ve got and what crimes are being reported. If there is a problem with gangs, we’re not being made aware of it. People need to tell us what the problems are.”

Comments(27)

Thurrockbob says...
6:39pm Tue 19 Mar 13

And Tory councillor Tunde Ojetola is clearly a tit living on another planet!

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Mattster says...
7:24pm Tue 19 Mar 13

Thurrockbob wrote:
And Tory councillor Tunde Ojetola is clearly a tit living on another planet!
Not another planet, but certainly in another Ward, Grays Riverside.

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ardale lad says...
7:51pm Tue 19 Mar 13

I can think of many words to shy away from but gangs? is not one of them. What other words do you use to describe groups of youths hanging around together.

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rocket1 says...
8:14pm Tue 19 Mar 13

ejitola thinks chafford is too posh to have gangs,just large groups of uncontrolled yoofs.

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Mick P says...
8:27pm Tue 19 Mar 13

There Is a gang culture there are crimes that go unreported .that councillor has really no idea if he had he wouldn't say the crap he does,I know people that have moved from there because its what they called chafford "a pretty ghetto" sums the place up for me really

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Thurrock Trojan says...
11:29pm Tue 19 Mar 13

This explains why most of our African neighbours can afford top of the range cars, designer clothes, don't have a mortgage and often carry wads of £20 and £50 notes.

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Mick P says...
1:00am Wed 20 Mar 13

They don't all drive around in new cars they drive old 4x4s and old Honda cars

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A.N.Other says...
1:01am Wed 20 Mar 13

People elected this fool. Chafford residents are fools for electing this out of touch idiot.

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Dave_ says...
7:13am Wed 20 Mar 13

In some ways I think he's right to a avoid the word "gang" as in modern parlance it has much more sinister overtones, when applied to groups of youngsters.
I do however think that any surprise that this should happen in Chafford is misplaced. If anything, the way that Chafford has sprawled with uncontrolled developments rather than natural growth, with massive influx from other areas, it is ripe for it. What is it they say - "you can take x out of y, but you can't take y out of x".

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JusticeForAnimals says...
9:10am Wed 20 Mar 13

What a joke?

I'm adjacent from the Chafford Hundred Train station. I see various people on their own or in groups of 2 or 3 from all cultures jumping over the fence to catch the train.Groups of 10-15 both girls and boys from the age of 14+ hanging around in the car park.

Yesterday a call had to be made to the local PSCO to report that a group of 10-12 men age from 20-25 had pulled up in the private car park driving two 7seris BMW's with tinted windows and a sporty 4x4. All were standing around, looking out of place but then began looking around to see if they were being watched by CCTV. They were there for 30 minutes. Okay so they didn't fight or break into a car however they looked intimidating. It doesn't take a genius to work out something wasn't right here.

My experience of managing a wine bar and having two younger brothers allows me to have that view.

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7dogsnuts says...
9:21am Wed 20 Mar 13

this is a classic sign of gang culture an initiation rite so one can be accepted into a gang it wont be long before you see turf wars diifferent gangs where if you go into another gangs turf you get cut as is the way in inner city london because now a lot of ethic minorities have moved out of london to outlying suburbs and bought there way of life with them what is the solution the easy option would be to kick the lot out but in the real world we live in politically correct times this cant be done so use the american system lock em up throw away the key or as time progress you will see race wars on the streets of thurrock so coun ojetola wake up to the real world i wont be voting tory again but then that wont bother you maybe you could get yourself a job with the two bent councilors on the planning commitee but we will save my imput on that to another day

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Bernard 87 says...
9:58am Wed 20 Mar 13

They need to bring back the police who sat outside the station a few months back when things got bad.

They also need to actually patrol the area regularly as this will deter would be criminals from coming here in the first place. Once this type of thing is allowed to take root, whatever you want to call it, you will never get rid of it, the name of the place will be tarnished and people will start to move out

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DannyButcher says...
12:04pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Another useless Councillor who hasn't got a clue what is going on, what a surprise.

ALL politicians we seem to get now, even down to most Councillors, are a complete waste of space. Nobody ever seems to actually look out for the people they are meant to be working for, instead talk rubbish to cover their own backs.

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fletch12107 says...
4:27pm Wed 20 Mar 13

The Mobile Police Station was a good deterrent and intelligence gathering tool that was lost to the cuts.

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essexboy_since_2004 says...
10:27pm Wed 20 Mar 13

I think Cllr Ojetola's comments are fair. Yes there are antisocial behaviour problems on Chafford, and he said in the meeting the other night that crime in this area has gone from being subtle to a real problem. But when you think of gang culture you think of turf wars in major cities - I don't think Chafford is there yet. But there are a few groups of nasty kids doing nasty things to people.

Also very unfair to slag this councillor off. Look at his blog page cllrtunde.blogspot.c
om to see how much he does for our community. He is definitely not out of touch and a real asset to Chafford.

I do believe the area has become dangerous and the police seem powerless to do much about it. Apparently there is going to be an operation to curb some of the problems. It would be nice if in this operation they could relocate some of the problems back to London or further afield wherever they came from. As Chafford was not like this five years ago. It does resemble a rough London suburb now just with newer houses and nicer cars.

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essexboy_since_2004 says...
10:29pm Wed 20 Mar 13

A.N.Other wrote:
People elected this fool. Chafford residents are fools for electing this out of touch idiot.
How can you call this guy a fool? He's one of the best councillors in Thurrock. Worth his weight in gold.

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Thurrockbob says...
5:21am Thu 21 Mar 13

essexboy_since_2004 wrote:
A.N.Other wrote:
People elected this fool. Chafford residents are fools for electing this out of touch idiot.
How can you call this guy a fool? He's one of the best councillors in Thurrock. Worth his weight in gold.
Ah .... ladies and gentleman' please meet Ojetola's brother. Thank you!

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essexboy_since_2004 says...
7:12am Thu 21 Mar 13

I am not Tunde's brother but I am one of thousands of residents that voted for him as our ward councillor. And will continue to do so on the basis he represents our best interests. The guy makes a fair comment about gangs and you lot are on here accusing him of taking bribes and paying people to move to Chafford and even taunting him about his race. He's done more for Thurrock than most people born and bred here. Get a grip people. You're just a sad bunch of Internet trolls that make the same childish and negative comments about most news stories that are written in this paper.

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Mattster says...
9:18am Thu 21 Mar 13

essexboy_since_2004 wrote:
I am not Tunde's brother but I am one of thousands of residents that voted for him as our ward councillor. And will continue to do so on the basis he represents our best interests. The guy makes a fair comment about gangs and you lot are on here accusing him of taking bribes and paying people to move to Chafford and even taunting him about his race. He's done more for Thurrock than most people born and bred here. Get a grip people. You're just a sad bunch of Internet trolls that make the same childish and negative comments about most news stories that are written in this paper.
Oh dear, someone else who dosent know what a internet troll is.

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Thurrockbob says...
2:27pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Mattster wrote:
essexboy_since_2004 wrote:
I am not Tunde's brother but I am one of thousands of residents that voted for him as our ward councillor. And will continue to do so on the basis he represents our best interests. The guy makes a fair comment about gangs and you lot are on here accusing him of taking bribes and paying people to move to Chafford and even taunting him about his race. He's done more for Thurrock than most people born and bred here. Get a grip people. You're just a sad bunch of Internet trolls that make the same childish and negative comments about most news stories that are written in this paper.
Oh dear, someone else who dosent know what a internet troll is.
That's exactly what I was thinking, sad isn't it. ;o)

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aberline 88 says...
3:47pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Thurrockbob wrote:
Mattster wrote:
essexboy_since_2004 wrote:
I am not Tunde's brother but I am one of thousands of residents that voted for him as our ward councillor. And will continue to do so on the basis he represents our best interests. The guy makes a fair comment about gangs and you lot are on here accusing him of taking bribes and paying people to move to Chafford and even taunting him about his race. He's done more for Thurrock than most people born and bred here. Get a grip people. You're just a sad bunch of Internet trolls that make the same childish and negative comments about most news stories that are written in this paper.
Oh dear, someone else who dosent know what a internet troll is.
That's exactly what I was thinking, sad isn't it. ;o)
that tundes brother is getting a bit chopsy isnt he .

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rocket1 says...
4:02pm Thu 21 Mar 13

essexboy_since_2004 wrote:
A.N.Other wrote:
People elected this fool. Chafford residents are fools for electing this out of touch idiot.
How can you call this guy a fool? He's one of the best councillors in Thurrock. Worth his weight in gold.
in my opinion he is definite fool.

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Marcus P says...
8:49pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I don't wish to sound racist...BUT! is there one part of the UK with a high black population that does not have a crime problem or a welfare dependency culture?

I am sure there are many fine BEM individuals, however there are Government statistics which prove certain ethnic groups are 'over represented' in knife and gun crime per 1000 of the population. The 2011 London riots were started in an area with a huge BEM population.

I think it is realistic and honest to fear as Thurrock’s black populace increases so will gang related crime. I find this strange as Chafford Hundred has a very good secondary school (for now) and is not a poor area. The usual explanations / excuses for this type of behaviour do not apply in this case.

This was a knife crime, something that used to be rare in my younger days but is now alas an every day event in some areas.

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jimgrays says...
9:54pm Thu 21 Mar 13

I've lived, and worked, in a couple of places that have gang issues, and I now live near Chafford Station.

Maybe, like most people in Chafford, I live a pretty sealed off life, but I see precious little signs of 'gang culture'. What I do see is (apart from Lakeside) precious little to do in the area.

I mean I am in my 30s and I find it a pretty boring place to live, imagine if you were a teenager or in your early twenties around here with not much money, there's not exactly anywhere to go locally, or anything to do so it isn't exactly somewhere you can make your own fun.

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jimgrays says...
9:57pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Sorry there should have been a full stop in that last paragraph. Can you spot where it should be?

I'll award the winner a Twix (from Tesco Metro of course).

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Drunken Master says...
6:25am Fri 22 Mar 13

Marcus P wrote:
I don't wish to sound racist...BUT! is there one part of the UK with a high black population that does not have a crime problem or a welfare dependency culture?

I am sure there are many fine BEM individuals, however there are Government statistics which prove certain ethnic groups are 'over represented' in knife and gun crime per 1000 of the population. The 2011 London riots were started in an area with a huge BEM population.

I think it is realistic and honest to fear as Thurrock’s black populace increases so will gang related crime. I find this strange as Chafford Hundred has a very good secondary school (for now) and is not a poor area. The usual explanations / excuses for this type of behaviour do not apply in this case.

This was a knife crime, something that used to be rare in my younger days but is now alas an every day event in some areas.
Most people would agree with you Marcus but they would be hounded by white do-gooders and labelled racist even though its the truth. Hands up all of those that knew this was coming as soon as the floodgates opened to the inner London black community?

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rocket1 says...
7:02pm Mon 25 Mar 13

ejitola has been reading these comments.

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