Antisocial behaviour in Blythe Hill Fields has been a problem for at least the 21 years I've lived here and probably long before.
My garden backs onto the fields, close to the playground. As the lighter and warmer evenings arrive, the playground area will be full of yobs from around 9pm every night, until the early hours. From my house, I hear them screaming, fighting, swearing, throwing bottles and (sometimes) fireworks, antagonising fighting breed dogs and often, vandalising and abusing the play equipment (the sound of chains rasping against the swing posts for hours is infuriating) and the smell of drugs wafting down is clear.
The motorbikes are a relatively new thing, perhaps for the past five years or so. Once, I managed to knock a motorcycle rider off his machine as I was walking through the fields. Unfortunately, he got back on it and rode off. On another occasion, the police were trying to catch one and I had a go at knocking him off too but failed. So did they.
I have reported this behaviour time and time again to the police, with little or no result. There's plenty they could have done over the years but haven't. It's an every night thing in the Summer, it's not like the police would have a wasted trip. On nearby streets - Montem Road, Stanstead Road (around the tacky shops at the bottom of Ravensbourne Road) the police have applied for and been given Dispersal Zones, but to the best of my knowledge, they've never done it for Blythe Hill Fields.
Clearly, after 21 years, the problem has moved through several "generations" of kids (yobs), but it's a favourite haunt of the scumbag class and the police really could have done something about it long ago, if they had wanted to. I know I'm not the only resident to have contacted them.
On one occasion, I was torn off a strip by a police officer on the telephone (not a civilian, I did check) at Catford Police Station, who told me that on a Friday night, they had better things to do and didn't appreciate my call. I reminded her that my duty as a citizen was to report crime. Whether they had the resources to deal with it was a matter for them and even if they weren't able to attend, a "thank you for your call" would have been the appropriate response. Upon reviewing the recording of the telephone call, an Inspector at Catford agreed with me and promised to have firm words with the officer who made the comments, but sadly that's indicative of the attitude we can expect when reporting the type of minor but very irritating crime that goes on up there, every Summer.