Traders pay for security

7:05am Thursday 15th May 2008

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SHOPKEEPERS in South Ruislip have been forced to pay more than £600 each in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour.

A parade of shops in Field End Road have been plagued by shoplifters, people abusing staff, littering and even drug taking in an alleyway for several years.

Sagar Piasa, 24, the owner of a newsagent in the parade of shops, said: "It is mainly the young kids that cause the trouble.

"I have been here for six years but it has been worse for the past two years. It got to a stage where I was going to sell up because I thought it was never going to end."

The shopkeepers complained to Councillor Alan Kauffman (Con, South Ruislip), who managed to get £12,000 of funding from the Chrysalis programme, which funds improvements to council land for improved security measures.

However, ten shopkeepers in the parade have had to contribute £689 each towards the costs of the new gates and CCTV cameras.

Abdul Kayun, 26, the manager of Blockbuster, told the Hillingdon Times that, for the five years he has been there, he has always experienced problems.

He said: "We have all had to pay a lot of money and hopefully it is going to reduce the problems."

Cllr Kauffman says sorting the problems out has brought the local community closer together.

He said: "The problems here have been going on for yonks, and I'm glad we were able to find this funding otherwise things would not have been sorted until next year.

"It's not just the shopkeepers but people from flats above who have been disturbed by this anti-social behaviour."