There are two issues here, general criminality and your own particular problem with noise. The council have powers to deal with is so I understand, doubt the Police have the time or inclination to even attend noise. Try reporting it as anti social behaviour , you may stand a better chance.

Forest Hill/Sydenham publish their "newsletter", I'd rather see them deal directly with criminality than waste time producing newsletters which somehow seem to say nothing, never quote numbers of crimes committed by category and clear up rates. Its as though quantitative data isn't produced because they know how poorly they are doing.

The only time I've seen a huge Police response was to Police chase from Southwark into Lewisham borough ending up with the Police ramming the car off the road on Westwood Park. And another unmarked Police car x4 chase only last week, along Benchley Gardens turning right into Forest Hill Road, I don't know what direction the chase went in after that.

It seems Police walking the beat is a thing of the past, they much prefer to be in cars and even occasionally on push bikes.

So, until the power is shifted in City Hall and someone else runs London (bearing in mind the very latest election) the incumbent was re-elected for a further five years, little if anything will improve and is highly likely to become much worse. I have no faith in his ability as has been proven over two terms in office that he can actually do the job.

We need our Police Stations back, but they've been sold off, we need more reliable police officers, we need all police services to be taken back in house and not contracted out, we need front office of stations where you can actually speak to a police officer and not ill informed police staff.

We need needs the drugs and knife crime epidemic in this City dealt with where stabbings are no longer reported as they are so frequent. We need phone thefts eradicated, but its a multi pound industry to China where the phones mostly end up. We need burglaries investigated, problem is there are now not enough spaces in prison.

Try getting an appointment with a GP, they are still working from home rather than seeing patients in surgery, because of COVID. A rubbish excuse or receptionists who you have to repeat everything to because they think they are gate keeper, not merely a receptionist.

Add to that a failing education system, where people can no longer do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. Where in shops staff can't give change because they are incapable of working out the correct change from a £5 note. Or Pharmacists who can't count the right number of pills for a prescription.

Try finding a reliable plumber, electrician, carpenter, painter, builder who is skilled at their trade, does a proper job, can be trusted and works at a reasonable price.

I hate to say it, but it actually makes you want to leave London and move as far away as possible. Even more so if you have young children. London in the suburbs is no longer a safe place to live in.

Politicians and councillors of all persuasions are only interested in their own careers, which makes the carer politicians, they are not there for us but purely for themselves. A prime example is the former Mayor of Lewisham who walked out of the job to be elected as an MP in Bristol.

Constituents no longer can trust the politicians we have. And in Parliament with the landslide majority they hold, they can and will do anything THEY want. Government at all levels from local councils to Westminster are supposed to work on our behalf, not a chance in hell these days of that happening.

And honestly, Lewisham does not need a Mayor we have a Chief Executive of the council already. All a Mayor does is become another level of costly and unneeded beauracracy. Ditto London does not need a Mayor either, look at the stonking 8% increase he adds annually to council tax bills to fund and fill the voids of his apparent budget deficit, whist having £M in the bank anyway.

Money does not grow on trees, people are still struggling, first it was the poor, then the middle classes (and I hate the terms the poor and middle classes), but the rich
never pay, they have schemes to prevent paying tax. It's one rule for us and another for the Establishment. We were told a change was going to come, and it certainly has, Just wait till the October 2024 budget when our pockets will be well and truly picked yet again.

Huge pay rises cannot be given, because the Government purse doesn't have sufficient funds to pay for it all so from a £9M blackhole it becomes a 20M black hole, When will they realise money does NOT grow on trees.

This country is gradually sinking into the abyss and is going to the dogs.