MP demands answers from council over riot report

Apr 11 2007 By Poppy Brady, Birmingham Mail

CITY MP Khalid Mahmood today demanded to know why the city council has failed to publish the Lozells Response Plan, a document it promised to draw up following rioting which left one man dead.

As a local authority, the council is legally required to have such a plan of action prepared in a bid to prevent similar events happening in the future.

In a letter to Stephen Hughes, the city council's chief executive, Mr Mahmood said: "This is in clear violation of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, which states that local authorities have an obligation to use the exercise of these functions to reduce crime."

He added: "I have had it brought to my attention by concerned residents that this breach is a prosecutable offence. Given the disturbances which affected my constituency in 2005, I believe that the failure of the council to produce such a plan is extremely disappointing and could engender further disturbances."

But the city council today insisted the report would be be released "in due course".

A council spokesman said: "This is a report on community cohesion and how we can contribute to make things better."

Mr Mahmood claimed: "It is time the council responded to what people are asking for rather than concentrating on high-profile conferences on guns and gangs where the people at grass roots level are ignored, as happened two weeks ago."

Apart from the rioting in Lozells itself on October 22, hundreds of families living on the Austin Estate, two miles away in Handsworth Wood, experienced gangs on the rampage, causing police to struggle with the volume of calls.

Manjit Singh, of the Austin Estate residents' association and Sandwell One neighbourhood forum, said: "In the months after the disturbances, the council took the lead role at community meetings.

"They assured us that measures would be put in place to assure us that these events would not happen again. But no document has been revealed to us."

The Lozells rioting left an innocent man dead, three others stabbed, a policeman wounded, 35 people needing hospital treatment and 80 reported crimes.

Isaiah Youngsam, aged 24, was stabbed to death as he was walking in Carlyle Road, Lozells, just 200 yards from his home. Three men - Waqar Ahmed, 25, Afzal Khan, 22, and Azail Khan, 23, all from the Handsworth area - were convicted of murdering Isaiah in May 2006.

PC Peter Harrison, of West Midlands Police, who was blasted in the leg, later received a Chief Constable's Commendation.