Life on the street of crime

It is a typical city street, a home to professionals, students and families. The residents recognise each other, attend regular Neighbourhood Watch meetings and chat over local news while walking their dogs.

But Orbel Street, in Battersea, is typical for another reason - it is badly affected by crime.

The Evening Standard carried out a survey of the street which shows that almost half the households have been hit by crime in the past two years.

Despite a two per cent fall last year in the number of burglaries, crime is still on the increase in London.

The total number of offences of all types last year was 1,080,741, a two per cent increase on the previous year.

Together with demands for more police on the beat, there have also been proposals for private street patrols. Communities dissatisfied with their existing police cover could soon be able to pay a levy of up to £10,000 to have a private patrol in their area.

Orbel Street is unusual in that it has a bobby on a bicycle, Pc John Johnson, who visits two or three times a week and is known by name to many of the residents.

Despite this, people do not feel the policing is effective.

In the past two years Harry Watling, a chartered accountant and father of two, has chased would-be burglars from his back garden five times and been threatened by youths with broken bottles after trying to stop them vandalising a moped.

He said: "The level of crime in the area is really, really bad. I have no confidence in the police. They generally won't come out. They say they are too busy." Father O'Riordan, a member of the Salesian religious order which occupies 10 houses in the street, has suffered countless break-ins, thefts and vandalism.

He said: "I don't report incidents any more because we have experience in the past of reporting things and no action being taken. The police are too busy filling in forms."

There are a total of 57 households in Orbel Street, counting the houses occupied by the religious order as one. The Evening Standard spoke to 46 of these and 21 reported being hit by crime.

We chose Battersea for our poll of a typical city street because it contains a mix of old and new homes, owned both privately and by the council, and as such is representative of many innercity boroughs.

Since autumn 2001 there have been at least six muggings, the most recent of which saw a 24-year-old nurse, Kate Parsons, beaten unconscious. There have been 13 break-ins, at least 11 cases of car theft and vandalism and one of arson.

In total, 34 crimes have been perpetrated on the residents.

"It's pretty scary around here," said a homeowner, who was too afraid to be named and whose car was vandalised a week after she moved in. Now she is looking for a new home for her family.

"I feel like I'm living in the middle of the Bronx," she added.