The Ealing Safer Neighbourhood Board was scheduled to meet on Tuesday, 8 July 2025, to discuss police reports, ward panel updates, and project updates. The board was also scheduled to approve the minutes from their previous meeting.

Police Report

Superintendent Sean Lynch and Inspector Sam Pearce of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) were scheduled to present a report to the board. The report included:

• The MPS were creating a new application intended to change the relationship between the service and its stakeholders, planned for release in June.
• The MPS commemorated the 32nd anniversary of Stephen Lawrence's death to embed its significance into the force's ethos.
• The police team working with Jess Murray, Assistant Director of Community Protection, Community Safety Team, had seen an increase in problematic premises, leading to closure orders for four premises generating anti-social behaviour (ASB), with five more in progress, particularly in Northolt and Acton, due to issues related to drugs and other concerns.
• The police had been working with the Youth Justice Service on Criminal Behaviour Orders for 15 young people causing issues.
• The MPS planned to increase operations in town centres with the High Street Taskforce over the summer to reduce crimes like shoplifting, including responsible retailer work and visits to premises selling knives to under-18s.
• Knife arches in schools were ongoing, with one planned for the Greenford area, despite knives still being confiscated in schools across Ealing.
• The police planned to increase operations addressing smartphone theft in the town centre, targeting perpetrators and raising public awareness.
• The police intended to continue town centre work on Violence Against Women and Girls through uniformed and plain clothes patrols, working with live facial recognition deployments.
• More officers would be deployed to schools to prevent youth crime.

• Over the previous four weeks:

  • Calls for service were down 20% to 857.
  • Domestic abuse incidents saw a slight reduction.
  • Stop and search saw a slight reduction.
  • Knife crime incidents increased to 50 reported incidents.
  • Violence against women and girls, and violence with injury, saw a slight increase.
  • Neighbourhood crimes like shoplifting, robbery, hate crime, and burglary decreased.
  • Child victims saw a slight increase, attributed to school holidays.
  • Organised criminal gangs were increasingly using county lines[^1] to distribute drugs into Ealing, and the MPS planned to intensify efforts against this.
  • The MPS wanted to increase public communication and encourage the use of the StreetSafe app.

  • Eid al-Fitr[^2] in Southall had been broadly successful, but next year's celebration was expected to have a greater police presence due to out-of-borough actors causing property damage and public safety risks.

    [^1]: County lines is a term used to refer to drug gangs from urban areas expanding their operations to smaller towns and rural areas, often using dedicated mobile phone lines to take orders. [^2]: Eid al-Fitr is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan.

The report also noted that the Home Secretary had launched a summer of activity surrounding action in town centres, and the Safer Neighbourhood Team was working on a plan to keep town centres safe. In the event of evictions through closure notices, individuals would not move into another property in the same area, with Mr Murray adding that individuals in social housing were often vulnerable and exploited by groups, and closure notices were a tool to remove them from dangerous environments. It was too soon to determine how the recent High Court ruling surrounding transgender women would affect policing policy.

Project Funding

John Martin, the Vice-chair, was scheduled provide an update to the Board on project funding. The proposed projects and their requested funding included:

• The Gauntlet Flight Academy Women's Self Defence Courses requested £5000
• Znaniye Foundation Safe Strong and Smart : Empowering Young People for a Safer Future requested £5000
• Sev Necati Training Personal Safety & Self Defence requested £5000
• EASE Survivors Group requested £4230.
• Our Moving Stories Creativity & Connection at Open Havelock requested £4770
• A sixth project that was running behind schedule was requesting £5000

The total costs of all these projects combined were £24,000, while the total funds that ENSB would receive were £22,787, leaving a current shortfall of £6,213, or £11,213 including the sixth project. Pending approval, funds from the Board's previous years' surplus could be used to fund the projects. The Board surplus from previous years was £24,476.91. Furthermore, the Board would have to decide which projects were presented to MOCAP¹.

One project did not proceed this year, leaving £5,300 allocated to the project uncertain. Mr Matin was confident that an alternative project could replace it and receive its funding, and he requested any member with a potential project to approach him.

Previous Minutes

The board was scheduled to approve the minutes from the meeting held on 22 April 2025, with a correction to a spelling error under item 5, Ward Panel Updates. During the previous meeting, Ms Sara Kumar, the Chair, had informed the Board that next year's Ealing Safer Neighbourhood Board (ENSB) dates were still being ratified. She encouraged committee members to invite local residents to the March public meeting, suggesting it was a valuable opportunity for them to engage with the Police and their ward representatives, potentially inspiring them to get involved with the Ealing Safer Neighbourhood Boards (ENSB) and help fill current vacancies. Residents were invited to attend the public meeting but would not be able to participate as board members. Ealing Councillors were also welcome to attend but were reminded not to bring Council issues to the board, and that all questions proposed must be crime-related.