Even in the autumn sunshine, the Aylesbury estate near Elephant and Castle can be a grim place, with rubbish and broken glass strewn across some graffiti-covered landings.

This estate has been grappling with anti-social behaviour since long before Tony Blair visited in 1997 and promised to end such "no hope" areas blighting the inner cities.

So, 12 years on, have his promises been translated into action?

Resident Nermin Topal, 65, said: "It's about 50-50. It is not as bad as it was, but it's not as good as it could be. There are still gangs of kids, running around screaming and throwing things, trying to break into cars and so on. It's mostly after school and it quietens down a bit later.''

Mrs Topal said she was too scared to leave her home after 8pm, even to visit her daughter two doors down -"I just lock my door and stay indoors," she added. But she and husband Fikret, also 65, have no intention of moving - they know the area and like the proximity to shops and the doctor. Two more long-term residents walking their pit-bull terriers, John Snelgrove, 51, and John Blackman, 66, both think crime in general is down, but see drugs as a problem.

Nermin Topal with her husband Fikret

Student Manana Boudzqli, 21, is unhappy about "young people drinking on street corners", while another woman, who refused to give her name, said she and a friend had been mugged' at the weekend: "We didn't report it to the police - what's the point around here?"

Since 1997, the Government-funded agency Aylesbury New Deal for Communities Programme has channelled about £56million into sporting, educational and cultural schemes, mainly for young people. The agency and Southwark council say the number of pupils getting A to C grades at GCSE level at local schools has risen from 17 per cent in 1999 to 63 per cent last year.

Unlike some other areas, they do not brandish Asbos around - preferring to use "behavioural contracts" and fixed penalties. It may work: the estate has 45 per cent lower recorded crime levels than Southwark as a whole, while the rate of burglaries and sexual offences are half that of the rest of the borough.

Plans to rebuild the estate at a cost of about £2billion are due to take effect next year, and the Aylesbury as it is now will disappear. Whether its social problems follow is another story.

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