It's a real shame but Albany Road sadly has become a hub for undesirables for want of a better word.The space behind the pub has become a dumping place for fly tippers.Any access point in the shadows at night is now a place for humans to urinate and defecate. ( That has been recurring from time to time for a few years now)Gangs are forming. Some are quite young kids and yet are roaming around often well past midnight. Drug dealing is taking place openly on Albany Road and has now spread down Brook Road South, Grosvenor Road Lateward road, Hamilton Road, Westbury place, The Park and in the alleyways and even rather ironically, at the empty Police station.It's often quite brazen, but ignore them & they will leave you alone. Now though, there are a aggressive boys and girls who have mouths like sewers who will simply walk up and assert themselves with expletives in a threatening way for no good reason.Where are they coming from? and more to the point where are the parents?Or are these kids just complete clones of their parents?Certainly the crime and drug stuff seems to have consolidated around the area since Albany Road was blocked off.The graffiti tags seem to follow the same routes and locations that the scooter and bike based individuals seem to use. The railway bridge between Brook Road and Brook Lane is always a dodgy place and a meeting place. There are now perfect escape routes by bike.It is getting of late, a little more sinister and more and more brazen. At one end with the dealers and couriers and at the other with the gobby threatening types too many of them of whom are too young to be like this.It's really saddening that after all the money, education and effort of 30 plus years, we still have this cycle of people who seem to revel in behaving like neanderthals.They are certainly not all nasty people, but it seems that a few dominate the rest who end up behaving the same way, probably to survive in the environment dominated by such. Almost a form of social oppression.It does not help that some of the wealthier new arrivals to Brentford have bought their " Street Cred" recreational habits to the area and are rather adept to having "a cool guy who gets stuff" Nothing new, But it seems to have become a bit too much in recent times.To my mind, these people are as bad as those who race around on bikes or swear at people in the streets. They fuel all this.The bad apples need to be rooted out. The drug dealers, drunks and drugged up need to be removed or moved on and the Police need to get their fingers out. And those who use the services of dealers also need a prod from plod.Police only seem to react to the really bad bits. But like New York, they need to be coming round the corner at any time, and prevent it ever getting to this stage.Everyone locally seems to know. But no-one, particularly where it's going on the most seems to want to do anything about it. But if it's the talk of the area, then surely the Police know all this as well?Is it fear or is it the complete lack of confidence in the Police or Authorities to do much about it? It really does need the police and the local community to get this nipped in the bud. I fear it is already starting to get past that point. It really is starting to become no-go in places.Much is regularly spouted out about " Our Changing Community" but it stops short of Changing for the better or Worse ?Is it this uncontrolled rate of change that is really the first signs of things to come?
Raymond Havelock ● 3393d