Ok – so we have tackled just about everything as a community – sex, drugs, porn, booze, property developers, squirrels, even karaoke but I wasn’t expecting to raise the issue of unwanted paparazzi staked out in my street. It turns out that we have a neighbour who is the subject of much comment in the tabloids. She has been living here quietly for some time and is welcome in the community.
The press pack have now rumbled that she lives in ‘London’s trendy Kings Cross’. So every morning there is a car or two in the street with a snapper reclined on the front seat with a lens that could spot life on Mars. As I write this there are five snappers in two illegally parked cars (on double yellows). At about 0200 AM they rouse themselves in a frenzy of flashes as our neighbour returns home – the flashes are so bright they wake people up. I spoke with the paparazzi – they said to me:
‘Yeah, you will be seeing a lot of us now. You should ask the people who live on Amy Winehouse’s street they love us crime has gone down massively there since we have been around’
I don’t make judgements about others, but the conversation felt horribly sleazy.
However, neighbour Stuart says:
‘The photographers clearly need to be considerate – they are not normally noisy but so far my gripes are:
(a) the extremely bright camera flashes used in the middle of the night – it makes you think the Luftwaffe are imminent and certainly wakes you up and
(b) I’m not certain but they seem to be leaving rubbish on the street from their lunches etc. while they hover and wait.’‘I have some sympathy with what one of the cameramen said because having had my car smashed a number of times by kids with nothing better to do, I feel that a supervisory presence will cut down on property crime.’
I am not sure what we can do about this – the traffic wardens have already been asked to be more vigilant. If a group of young people say were routinely disturbing the peace at 0200AM the police would use an ASBO or declare some sort of zone in which classes of behaviour were banned. Perhaps we could do that for the street. Any suggestions welcome.
And by the way, I am not going to get into a guessing game about who our neighbour is – i try to respect people’s privacy and won’t approve comments trying to name names. If you want to gossip go to the Bella/Hello/Popbitch etc sites.
Kings Cross Environment 
Wow. Now that is an interesting problem. I can see the potential for crime reduction but there’s no way littering etc should be tolerated.
BTW – anyone who reads the free London commuter rags knows exactly who your neighbour is!
I think this is great news. At my former home in NYC we had Cindi Lauper as one of our neighbours and every morning we had 5-10 little Cindi look-alikes on our doorstep.
You had to kick out of this as you left for work in the AM.
I think we have to remember that this is not about crime-reduction or littering.
Having lived on this street until very recently and being there when our ‘neighbour’ moved in, I can say with absolute certainty that the paps/journos have known about our neighbour for some time. Infact as soon as our neighbour arrived, I have found them in the rubbish bins, looking for ‘evidence/proof of residence’ and have caught them several times after that (as have other people on the street). Not only is this a major intrusion of privacy of our neighbour, but also everyone else on the road. A quiet word in the ear of the local community police officer put this activity on their radar and they have been quietly watching out since.
We also have to remember that even though they may say the crime rate will go down (which will only be temporary), at what cost? They may quote Amy Winehouse’s street but if you really think about it – Harrasment and intrusion privacy of local residents, the bullying of a young woman who can’t open her front door or come back home from a night out without the flash of bulbs and in Amy’s case last week having to call the police to clear the paps out of the way so she could be put in an ambulance.
Whilst I agree that those in the showbiz spotlight open themselves up to a certain amount of pap’ing – this being done at their home is unacceptable.
I wholehearted agree with pursuing the ASBO route – and think that this could be a good way to go.
Also – don’t forget that a certain part of the ‘street’ is private property so if anyone sees any of them trespassing then maybe reporting it would be a good idea.
There are essentially 3 problems:
1) The paparazzi are causing a serious nuisance at all hours, litter, noise etc. I have asked the Council’s head of environmental protection to consider serving an abatement notice (using powers in the 1990 Environment Act)against any press photographers working Rufford Street. If enacted, further infringement leads to criminal charges. However, this approach may prove too unconventional for the officers so I am not terribly confident the Council will rise to this challenge. I have to admit likewise about securing ASBOs. Unfortunately Islington Council isn’t terribly keen on serving ASBOs against anyone really … and to be fair especially to the police who end up doing the donkey work, it’s a pretty convoluted and lengthy process which will not give neighbours any relief.
2) The paparazzi are also parking in residents bays and on double yellow lines with apparent impunity. Now this is where we may have some more success. As of Friday 1st August, the Council is pursuing an investigation into the specific refusal of a Civil Enforcement Officer (parking warden) to take enforcement action against a vehicle parked on a double yellow line on Rufford Street on 30 July. I have also complained that these CEOs have consistently failed to issue tickets vehicles parked in residents’ bays on Rufford Street. There appears to be the mother of all bureaucratic alibis floated about this. Apparently the parking signs on Rufford Street keep getting “painted out” and this renders the parking rules unenforceable. Amazing but true. Anyway, it’s criminal damage and the police have agreed to act on it. There’s also a fix underway to cover the signs in some kind of coat which cannot be overpainted.
Despite all this, the Council’s wardens have been given new orders to step-up patrols in the area and on Friday 1st August there were 3 PCNs issued to vehicles for illegal parking on residents’ bays. I don’t know whether these were press photographers.
Although this may discourage photographers a little, unfortunately it only applies during the daytime.
3) The root of the problem is the young celebrity herself. I’m sympathetic to her predicament (the gutter press are busily defining her as another hard-partying young woman in a self-destruct spiral). I have written to her (and to her dad) suggesting she takes a holiday and, on her return, perhaps just cools things a little and gives the paps less reason to chase her around town.