pic: Albert Steinberger

Lewisham Council has launched an online survey asking residents for their views on safety in the borough.

Residents have the opportunity to respond until February 22.

According Metropolitan Police statistics, the crime rate of Lewisham is on par with the London average. Lewisham ranked 18th out of 32 London boroughs in December of last year, with 2040 registered criminal offences.

The areas Lewisham Central and New Cross present higher crime rates. Both wards together are responsible for 20 per cent of crime recorded in the borough.

Anti-social behaviour is the most common crime in Lewisham. Violence against the person, residential burglary and cars thefts appear as the most frequent criminal offences recorded.

According to the Council’s Safer Lewisham Strategy 2011-2014, the high anti-social behaviour figures are due to the large amount of youngsters on the borough.

The document, published last year, states: “As a statistically ‘young’ borough Lewisham has a much higher number of young people compared with adults, and young people tend to be more criminogenic between the ages of 15-21. There is an ongoing challenge of tacking Personal Robbery, Knife Crime and Youth Violence – the number of these offences tends to be higher in Lewisham than for its statistical neighbours.”

The survey also raised concerns about a large number of crimes going unreported.

According to Lewisham Council, the survey’s results will be used by The Safer Lewisham Partnership to set its priorities of the coming years. The partnership includes the local authority, the police, probation and fire services, and a number of health and voluntary organisations.