It has been almost five years since the local council found that over half of women and girls in Kingston did not ask for help when they found themselves in danger.
Since then, more bars and pubs have adopted the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme, which allows people to discreetly ask for help in venues using the code word ‘Angela’. Local participants included The Antelope, The Waggon and Horses and nightclub Pryzm.
Kingston Council’s planning committee has granted permission for the demolition of existing buildings at 22 Gloucester Road to make way for a three-storey co-living development.
The approved plans will see the site redeveloped into a 34-unit co-living accommodation with a basement, as well as additional landscaping, cycle storage, rubbish facilities and a disabled parking bay.
New data from data.police.uk show that violence and sexual crimes in Kingston are up compared other types of crime in the borough.
Meanwhile, crimes, such as bicycle theft, arson and possession of weapons, are down.
Ofwat, the water industry regulator, has confirmed the cost of water bills will increase on average by 26%.
New parking charges, announced in February, have been implemented, with motorists seeing parking prices triple to £3.90 in some places, including Fairfield road, Ashdown Road and Old London road.
The cost of policing football matches has risen for three seasons in a row since the pandemic, costing tens of millions of pounds in public money every season in London alone.
Last season the Metropolitan Police paid over £21m towards match-day policing. Despite the huge profits of top-flight football clubs, the Met has covered a vast majority of costs.
Several Kingston residents have expressed thanks to the building society Nationwide after receiving payments of £50 directly into their accounts this month.
The ‘Big Thank You’ payments, which began from 12 April, saw the company give over £600m back to more than 12m members as part of its ongoing ‘Fairer Share’ scheme.
Reading for pleasure is on the decline in the UK — but it’s boys and young men who are switching off the fastest.
According to a recent National Literacy Trust, a UK based literacy charity’s survey, just one in three children (34.6%) said they enjoy reading, and only one in five (20.5%) read daily. These are the lowest figures recorded since the trust started measuring in 2005.
Labour has announced a £200m boost for neighbourhood policing, with the hopes of recruiting an additional 13,000 neighbourhood police officers.
Surrey Police will receive £2.6m, while the amount Kingston will receive, under the Metropolitan Police Service, has not been publicly disclosed.
This month, Kingston Borough Council will receive £543,000 of the £1.6b of government grants to councils for pothole repairs.
However, for the council to receive the full amount pledged, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced all councils must publish annual progress reports and prove that the repairs completed are to the satisfaction of their residents.
