Policing the Common is the job of the Parks & Events Police & local Met teams
PARKS POLICE
If you see or are involved in an incident which contravenes the bye-laws, whether anti-social behaviour (ASB), dangerous cycling, out of control dogs or illegal sports activity, and are not unduly concerned about your immediate personal safety, contact the parks police on their mobile 07500 959442. A picture sent by whatsapp is simple but very effective. If possible, follow up with an e-mail to parkspolice@wandsworth.gov.uk
You can read more about the Parks Police here with more detail here. Bear in mind that the team of 9 officers patrol all Wandsworth’s greenspaces and can’t be everywhere at once. If they’re nearby they will attend quickly but if they are elsewhere in the borough they may not be able to. Leave a message for them to follow up.
THE MET SAFER NEIGHBOURGHOOD TEAM (SNT)
Each local ward area has a team of Metropolitan Police whose job is to patrol the ward, get to know its residents and respond to any problems. Wandsworth Common is covered by several wards but the main one is Wandsworth Common. Its SNT includes PC Gavin Talbot and support officer PCSO Biren Patel who patrol regularly. The team is based at Earlsfield Police Station and can be contacted on 0208 247 8168 or e-mail at wandsworthcommon@met.police.uk
Please do not hesitate to call 999 immediately if you see or are the victim of any crime such as robbery/theft, ASB or are worried about an individual behaving suspiciously or strangely. Give as many details as possible. Alternatively call 101 (the MET Police non-emergency enquiries hotline) or report it to the same control room online (https://www.met.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/).
If you wish to stay anonymous then you can report via CrimeStoppers (https://crimestoppers-uk.org/ or 0800 555 111)
Do also contact the Wandsworth Common Ward Safer Neighbourhood MET Police team. They will, however, be picking up details of any crime reported through 999, 101 or online every morning and will react accordingly.
Defibrillator
One is located in the AllStar tennis hut and is accessible during their opening hours. Click here for a short leaflet describing how to find and use it
Litter
Removing litter from Wandsworth greenspaces costs £1/3 million every year, money that could be better spent on more useful things.
There is only one dedicated litter picker for the whole of the Common – Michael (photo). Say hello when you see him and thank him for the great job he does. Make his job easier by taking your litter home or put it in the appropriate bin - recycling or general waste. Litter encourages pests — rats and crows — can kill animals and birds and looks awful.
Many individuals help by regularly picking up others’ litter when they see it. They do a great job and are unsung heroes. But if you collect large amounts of rubbish and expect it to be collected, agree it with Enable in advance so they can factor it into their collection schedule. Unscheduled collections are very expensive.
We organise regular litter picks on Mondays at 10am, providing grabbers, gloves, sacks and hoops. It’s a worthwhile and enjoyable activity and it allows us to deep clean areas that would otherwise be neglected, especially the ecological areas in winter, outside the nesting season. We keep recyclables separate and dispose of them in the special bins. Contact us if you're interested and be sure to read this Health and Safety advice before joining one of our sessions.