Camden Council’s contracted waste operator throwing away the tents

THE scandalous removal of tents this week cannot be allowed to happen again.

There has been a furious reaction which has led to much hand-wringing and contrition.

It should act as a watershed moment for Camden – one that we can look back on in years to come as a point of progress towards a more compassionate understanding.

Whatever you think of homeless people and tents, the timing of the decision to roll in on Friday was quite extraordinary.

Just days after a national outcry over Suella Braverman’s threatened crackdown on tents, Camden’s contractor Veolia were filmed tossing them into a dump truck.

This was a combined effort between our most trusted public authorities – the NHS, police and the council.

The uproar on Friday night saw managers at UCLH criticised by staff running a service specifically for homeless people in the hospital.

Then there was the spectacle of Camden Council making bold statements insisting it was not involved, followed by the need for a retraction. It was involved.

Cllr Adam Harrison went on to say the events the council had been involved in organising were “unacceptable” and leader Georgia Gould has said there was a “culture” that needed to change inside the Town Hall.

Homeless people’s tents have been cleared away many times in Camden before. In 2017, the police and Camden Council dismantled camps and confiscated tents by rough sleepers who were “dispersed” from at least four sites across the borough.

There was also criticism in 2019 of the way security teams hired by the Business Improvement District, Camden Town Unlimited, were creating a hostile environment for homeless people.

A campsite in the pavement can look unsightly. Desperate people make people nervous. It is natural for people to fear what they cannot see or don’t understand.

But if you treat people on the street with disdain and hostility, should we be surprised if that’s what comes back from time to time?

We saw during the Covid pandemic how it was possible – with relative ease – to move hundreds of people off the street in Camden and into hotels.

Also to blame in this sorry saga are the dispersal notices and the so-called Community Protection Notices (CPNs). They are the latest product of the tough-on-crime doctrine of “anti-social behaviour” fear-mongering that has been routinely promoted by successive governments since the Tony Blair era began.

CPNs replaced Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), which were abolished following an outcry about them being used dispropor­tionately against black people.

These cowboy laws, which can be issued on the spot by police, have trebled since they were introduced almost 10 years ago.

It’s time to abolish CPNs, but also the hostile approach to our neighbours on the street who are in the most need of help.