The PM toured Tottenham’s relief centre this morning, met volunteers and praised united spirit of helpers
David Cameron took a whistlestop tour this morning of the emergency relief centre that has become the heart of aid efforts in the wake of the Tottenham riots.
The Prime Minister met volunteers, agency workers and council officers who have been working around the clock at the centre, set up in a sports hall in Tottenham Green Leisure Centre, and spoke privately with those made homeless in the riots 10 days ago.
He also met emergency services staff in nearby Tottenham Fire Station to hear about the challenges they faced on one of Tottenham’s darkest days.
But he told the Tottenham Journal he was impressed by the “capability to rebuild, and the strength of civic society” at the relief centre in Philip Lane, South Tottenham.
Asked if he thought it would be it would be particularly hard to make good on his promise to “mend our broken society” in Tottenham, given the challenges of language barriers, high pupil turnover, transient populations, poverty and gang culture, he said tackling gang culture would be a “priority” as there was “a large element of gang culture to what happened on our streets”.
He applauded relief centre workers, who “have an enormous amount of civic pride, who dropped everything, who threw their whole lives into helping Tottenham at this time,” adding: “So there’s the capacity there; what you need is just to make sure you’ve got the right ideas and policies to drive it forward, and I’m working very closely with David Lammy to make sure we’ve got that.”
Mr Cameron is the last national party leader to visit Tottenham in the wake of the riots, following Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg who toured the decimated High Road on Monday, August 8, and Labour leader Ed Miliband, who visited the relief centre on Friday, August 12.
Following his visit, Haringey Council leader Cllr Claire Kober said he had only seen “a fraction of the fantastic community spirit which has abounded in Tottenham since the disturbances earlier this month.”
She said she hoped he left with “a strong sense of how vital it is that the government provides ongoing support” for the residents and businesses affected, adding: “Our priority now is to rebuild Tottenham for everyone who lives and works here. To do that, it is essential that the government gives urgent financial assistance to the efforts to get the area – and the community so harmed by these devastating events – back on it’s feet.”
Tottenham MP David Lammy, who invited Mr Cameron to meet victims whose businesses were “lying in cinders”, said: “The residents, businesses and emergency services who met him were very clear about the concerns they had before that Saturday night and since and I fully expect him to address those issues.”
Source: Hornsey Journal
