Tower Hamlets Wheelers

Well done to all those that wrote letters pushing for this problem to be cleared up. We have had many supportive replies and better still we have seen ACTION!

Sunday August 15th saw the police working in conjunction with the council market trading group to clear the North side of Bethnal Green Road being of illegal traders. This was followed up on August 22nd with the North side of the road again being cleared.

Thanks to Councillors Matin, Alexander and John Biggs of the GLA for their fine support over this issue.

Over the next few weeks and months we still need to keep an eye on the area. During the first week of enforcement there was a problem as the bike sellers just crossed over the road onto Schlater Street. However by Sunday 22nd only a very small group did this.

As part of our continued observation of the area we would like your help. If you are down the market on a Sunday morning we would be grateful to hear what you see. Just send an email with the date and time of when you where there and what you saw.

Hopefully this fine result will shortly feed through into the bike theft stats for the borough. The quick response by the local authorities is a great result and does show the power of the pen!

In recent months there has been a spate of bike thefts in the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Hackney (stolen bikes register). The police often advise theft victims that the best chance to recover their bike lies in visiting Brick Lane Market.

If you take the police up on their suggestion on a Sunday morning and visit the junction of Sclater Street and Bethnal Green Road (streetmap link) then you will find an unofficial market attached to the main one. Local lads who will sell you a new looking bike, that has recently been relieved of its lock, staff this 'market'. It is not a small event, standing nearby on a Sunday morning you will witness in order of 100 bikes changing hands.

Without a ready market a bicycle is less attractive to a thief. The police are aware of the trade and they need to take action NOW to close down this illegal market.

Please help highlight this issue by using the template letter and contact addresses below.

Below is a sample letter asking for action on the illegal Brick Lane bike trade.

Cut and paste the text into your favourite editor or directly download a Word doc.

[Contact address]

Dear [Contact],

Trading of stolen bicycles at Brick Lane Market

I am writing to voice my concern over the trading of stolen bicycles that routinely takes place at Brick Lane Market and the surrounding area on Sunday mornings. It is common knowledge that this activity is going on - even the local police advise visiting the area if you have your bicycle stolen, yet nothing effective is being done about it.

According to the Metropolitan Police's own crime statistics there have been 1245 bicycles stolen within Tower Hamlets alone in the last 12 months. At an average of £400 a bike, that is nearly half a million pounds worth of bicycles stolen from one borough alone.

What is perhaps more worrying is that the number of thefts is on the increase. The running 12 months totals for the last 3 years reads as follows:

To June (year)	01-02	02-03	03-04
Thefts in Tower Hamlets	721	861	1245

Up over 60% in three years. Police action in this area is poor, with an average of only one incident clear-up per month. That is a paltry 1.4%. These theft figures could easily be reduced if the outlet for the re-sale of the bicycles is closed down.

If you were to visit the area surrounding Brick Lane market on a Sunday market then you would be appalled to see how many bicycles are being sold on. I would estimate there to be on order of a hundred bicycles changing hands per week, most of which would never have been bought originally by the person selling the bike.

I am writing to ask you to take action on this issue and request that this unofficial market for bikes is shutdown immediately. I believe that this would greatly reduce the number of bicycle thefts in the surrounding boroughs. I would be grateful if you could contact me to let me know what is being done.

Yours sincerely,

[your name]

Trading of Stolen Bicycles around theBrick Lane area

Trading of Stolen Bicycles around the
Brick Lane area