Let residents reclaim their streets with night patrols, says Brian Paddick

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The Lib-Dem mayoral candidate said he wanted "public-spirited people" to "reclaim the streets" from criminals.

Mr Paddick, a former Met Police commander, announced his plans as he visited a south London square where residents have started their own patrols after a string of muggings and a carjacking.

Up to a dozen neighbours in Bonnington Square, Vauxhall, have patrolled the area with lanterns and created a telephone helpline which lone women can call to be escorted safely home.

Resident Matthew Hanbury, 41, a business manager, said he was robbed on Monday by youths carrying guns in the square where properties sell for up to £700,000. He said: "Three youths with masks and baseball caps ambushed my friend and I and we both had guns to our heads. It was brutal, it lasted about seven minutes.

"I'm still quite nervous when I go out, there are no words that can explain how terrifying it was." Latest police figures show a rise in muggings in all but two London boroughs, while burglary rates are also rising across most of the capital.

Mr Paddick said that the Bonnington Square residents were "a very good example for others" and claimed that "the public need to more actively engage in crime prevention". He said: "These people have suffered a spate of robberies and what they've decided to do is patrol the streets, very passively, to make a statement saying they're standing together against criminals.

"If the police and law-abiding public stand together, criminals don't stand a chance. It's not about vigilantism or citizen's arrest. It's the community saying this area belongs to them.

"This is about local people taking control of the situation rather than saying it's somebody else's problem." He added: "I want to encourage other communities across London to follow this example. All you need is half a dozen, able bodied, spirited people to get together with the police and start patrolling the estate and start driving the drug dealers away and we can begin to reclaim the streets."