Conservatives (Matt Smith & Philip Vracas) presented a petition to Tower Hamlets Council to stop aggressive touting in Brick Lane.
During the Spitalfields and Banglatown by-election in December 2010 the Conservatives were the only party to call for an end to the intimidation, nuisance and harassment associated with pushy touts outside restaurants in Brick Lane and the surrounding area.
Despite the Tower Hamlets Safer Together campaign launched in July 2010 local residents say aggressive and sometimes intimidating restaurant touting continues unabated. Residents told us they have seen Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers blithely walking passed touts, obviously in breach of the bye-law without taking action.
Why haven’t Labour and Lutfur Rahman’s ‘independent’ councillor Shelina Akhtar put a stop to this?
Local Conservatives collected a cross-community petition against touting which collected dozens of signatures from residents on Folgate Street, Elder Street, Wilkes Street, Princelet Street, Hanbury Street, Woodseer Street and Fournier Street.
Delivering the petition before the Mayor and Councillors of Tower Hamlets local activist Matt Smith quoted one local petitioner who said ‘No one wants to be a spoil sport but there has to be room for everyone to live here’.
Philip Vracas, another local activist conveyed the support of numerous local businesses who approached him in support of our petition.
After he had finished delivering the petition local activist Matt Smith said: ‘I was amazed to be heckled by Labour members we just want the Council to enforce their own byelaw against aggressive restaurant touting’.