Westfield Stratford's postcode is the country's worst crime hotspot

 
Crimes: The postcode where Stratford Westfield is located is the UK's worst spot for crime
Emer Martin12 August 2013
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The postcode covering Westfield shopping centre in Stratford has been named the country’s worst crime hotspot.

Figures published this week reveal that the second highest number of crimes have been recorded at the other Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush.

The data was compiled analysing details uploaded by every police force in the country to a website maintained by the Home Office.

In the last 18 months Scotland Yard has recorded 3,440 crimes in Meridian Square – the public area that links Stratford’s bus and rail stations, the Westfield shopping centre and the entrance to the Olympic Park which is the equivalent to 6.7 a day.

These include 500 shoplifting offences, almost 300 violent crimes and hundreds of pick-pocketings and muggings.

Its postcode, E15 1AZ, saw a record 291 offences in January this year.

Twelve months earlier there had been just 73, while criminality also increased last summer as millions of spectators arrived to witness the London Olympics.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “In addition to the Olympic Games which attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, 12 concerts and anniversary athletic events have recently taken place, with an extra 660,000 people attending.

“Because of the high footfall, these areas attract criminal opportunists and therefore experience proportionately higher levels of crime. The Met tackles this by deploying its resources to the areas where they are most needed.”

The Met added that robbery had fallen by 5 per cent over the past 12 months in Newham, the borough where Stratford is situated, and that anti-social behaviour orders were being used to tackle “prolific shoplifters” as crime across the capital fell to its lowest level for a decade.

Senior Newham councillor Richard Crawford said: “We have a zero-tolerance approach to crime and anti-social behaviour in Stratford and across Newham.

“Safety remains our residents’ number one concern and we are investing more in making Newham safer.

“Crime and anti-social behaviour is unacceptable and we will never apologise for being tough on those who make the lives of the hard-working majority a misery.”

The council funds police community support officers and has set up a ‘dispersal zone’ so gangs of youths can be kept away from the centre of Stratford.

A spokesman for Westfield insisted the postcode covered a wider area than its shopping centre alone, and added: “As a proportion of high customer numbers visiting our centres, the incident levels at Westfield are very low.

“The safety of our customers, retailers and residents is a key priority. Westfield has on-site police teams and works closely with the Met Police, local authorities and retailers to ensure its centres are a safe and enjoyable place for our customers.’

In the past 18 months, 2,524 crimes were recorded at the Shepherd’s Bush shopping centre.

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