London Riots: Looking back - and to the future

The police are currently assessing 30+ hours of CCTV footage, from council CCTV cameras which will provide a fuller picture of the number and scale of incidents around the borough. Importantly, this will also help secure more convictions of those who took part in the events.

Around 52 arrests were made in total in Hackney and at least 30 people have now been charged. Two of the arrests were made directly as a result of live CCTV footage and both the police and fire services used the CCTV control room as the base for their operations during the riots. The planning exercises have previously shown that this inter-service working is well rehearsed and prepared for in the borough.

Council street cleaners performed an amazing job:

The Narrow Way was cleared twice, on the first occasion around 8.30pm on Monday night immediately after police had cleared the rioters. Street cleaners then had to clear the top of it again at shortly after 3am as a result of further damage.

Most scenes cleared by 5am

Streets washed down by 7am to 7.30am

14 burnt vehicles identified and removed by parking in Clarence Road by noon with 10 in other areas removed.

The damaged carriageway in Clarence Road will be repaired by close of business on Friday, with Clarence Place, Goulton Road and Clapton Square following on early next week.

All minor street lighting damage was repaired on Tuesday and 2 burnt lamp columns to be replaced next Monday and UKPN will connect them on Wednesday.

The graffiti that covered the whole wall in Clarence Road was also removed at 7am on Tuesday

All bins and loose street furniture removed from Hackney Central, Dalston and the A10 on Tuesday, as a precautionary measure. They will be returned on police advice.

Supporting local businesses in Hackney Central:

The Council has been supporting local shops and businesses in Hackney Central in a variety of ways, including:

We have been visiting all shops in the town centre frequently on a daily basis since Monday.

We have distributed Police Advice Sheets to all possible businesses and asked businesses to cascade information onwards to fellow businesses to ensure maximum coverage

From CCTV footage, we have been able to give advice to retail managers about how their shops were broken into and measures they can take to make them safer going forward.

About 150 people turned up at the Town Hall on Tuesday morning as part of the Twitter campaign (#RiotCleanUp) and were thanked but told that the streets had been cleared and they should go elsewhere in London where their help was needed.

Going forward both the Mayor of London and the government have announced funds to help those areas most affected by the events of earlier this week. Unfortunately, at present, both what this consists of and whether any money will come to Hackney Central is unclear. We will push to ensure that businesses and our town centre get the money that they need.

We have been delighted by the response of the community in coming back to bring the real character of Hackney to the fore. There will be more opportunities to come together and we will keep you updated.

Picture copyright of Hackney Gazette.