Dispatches from the frontline

Salford is not a cosy garden suburb; it is a complex ever changing working class city that is determined to transform itself.  What happened during the disturbances is not how we want to be portrayed but we will learn and create a stronger city.

It is dangerous to generalise about the causes of the riots across the country.  It was clear that there were significant differences between even Salford and Manchester.  In Salford there appears to have been more of a connection to organised criminal gangs, and the geographical location of our disturbances was fundamentally different from the rest of the country.

Ours took place in the middle of a large social housing estate where the rioters were determined to trash the very shops that the community depend upon for their goods and livelihoods.  As we went through the night it became clear that the rioters had two objectives: one to acquire stock from local shops and secondly to confront the police in a show of defiance.

As well as the attacks on shops which are vital community assets, they also attacked a former library that was being used as a local book store, whilst intimidating local residents.  There was no doubt that a network of criminal contacts on the estate operated to draw more people into the disturbances.

In the face of this semi-organised attack my thoughts were with the police and fire officers who battled tirelessly through the night to restore calm.  The liaison between the council, police and fire services was of the highest standard throughout and the strength of that became apparent the next morning when, by 5am, as soon as we were given the all clear from the police, we put the wheels in motion to clean up.  On speaking to residents that morning it was clear there was a determination to fight back and not to allow the rioters to win. By 9am the community were involved in the clean-up operation and the estate returned to some degree of normality from a physical aspect.

Salford is dealing with families that have complex needs which require a great deal of public funds.  We are working together with the police, DWP and health to target this money more effectively and we are having some success.  However there is a further element of our strategy that I appreciate some will find difficult to accept, and that is the action we are taking against those residents involved in riotous behaviour.

In many cases these people have a long history of antisocial behaviour, terrifying the local community.  Someone needs to speak up for the ordinary people who did not take part but have suffered for some time at the hands of this undesirable element. We will evict those residents who have been identified and convicted in the courts.  I cannot accept that this estate which is about to have millions of pounds spent on regeneration should be sacrificed and that people that want to live on the estate should be expected to put up with this dangerous behaviour.

Some people have questioned the stance Salford and Manchester have taken but it is based on a commitment far greater than the current government’s tepid support for social housing.  It is based on a belief that if you live in social housing you do not lose your rights to a peaceful life.  To those of you that believe this is a further penalty for those who rioted I would say it is not intended to be so, but rather to avoid the collective punishment of those people that did not take part.

To build a better life requires dealing with hard and difficult issues.   It will require long term fostering of the community but also requires short term action to protect, strengthen and nurture free from fear.  That is why I got involved in local government.