Drunks and drug addicts to be targeted at Tulse Hill station
Further action has been taken by the authorities to clamp down on antisocial behaviour from a group of violent drunks and drug addicts outside Tulse Hill station.
The roof of a kiosk outside the station was removed recently to dissuade the drunks and beggars – who steal from local shops and aggressively beg from commuters – to stop them from communing there.
Station managers Southern railways have also offered the British Transport Police (BTP) an office on a Tulse Hill station platform so they can have a semi-permanent base there to deal with the problem.
However, the BTP spokeswoman said there were no plans to take the office and local neighbourhood officers would be continuing with their current strategy of having sweeping stations on the line.
Conservative leader and Thurlow Park councillor John Whelan has called for the area to become a no drinking zone to find a permanent solution to the problem. He has asked the council to approve research into the feasibility of such a zone .
He said: “I am in favour of all the work that is being done to improve the situation but we need to find a permanent solution to a problem that is blighting the area.”
Shops in adjacent Station Rise and commuters have called on the council, police and Southern to find a solution to a problem that has existed for months. Frustrations came to the surface recently when someone sprayed the kiosk with the words “scum drink here.”
The seriousness of the situation was exposed when a man associated with the group was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the attempted murder of a man outside the Railway pub next to the kiosk.
