Letters, contributions and comments sent in to the Advertiser this week.

Fight against violent crime continues

Unmesh Desai AM, London Assembly Member for City & East, writes:

Tackling re-offending is a key facet in our fight against rising violent crime.

This is why it has been very positive to see City Hall recently increase its investment in this

area.

The Mayor of London is expanding upon a pilot scheme which has been operating in Lewisham, Croydon, Southwark and Lambeth, making it a requirement for knife crime offenders deemed to be the most at-risk of re-offending to wear a GPS tag after their release from prison as part of strict licence conditions.

I welcome the decision to roll this out to our borough and believe it will help to improve the rehabilitation of persistent offenders and protect victims.

It should also enable the police to more effectively detect and prevent violent crime.

It is vital that we continue to come together as a community and cultivate a strong relationship with our local police teams.

In this way, we will be playing our part in stopping more tragedies from occurring on our streets by sharing with officers any relevant intelligence and information that we might have.

Benches not flowers

Joan Griffiths, Bow, full address supplied, writes:

Why have Transport for London installed a row of flowerpots instead of a row of seats in Mile End Station entrance hall?

They've refused for years to install a lift.

Now, with cash to spare, who told them that we'd rather they spent it on flowers than on a bench for the elderly, the disabled, the pram hoisters and luggage luggers to take a rest before toiling up the next two flights of stairs to the street?

What a cunning plan to ensure that only the young and active end up travelling on transport we Londoners have all paid for!

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