Metropolitan Police officers are investigating after a 15-year-old was raped in St Edwards Way at around 11.35pm on Sunday, June 22.
Conservative David Taylor, who represents the St Edwards ward, says he has asked the police for a public meeting and wants councillors to do more to keep their constituents safe.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We must do more to keep women and children safe in Romford.
“I have been, for years, asking for improvements to our subways and the money is there for CCTV expansion.
“Residents feel like the town is no longer safe and my inbox is full of concerned mothers and women who are afraid to walk home through the subways.
“The money is there, it is time to deliver safer streets now.”
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Council leader Ray Morgon said the authority “committed to helping improve safety on our streets” and was “already working on a number of projects with our community safety team, alongside colleagues from the Metropolitan Police — including the council-funded Section 92 Officers — to help keep people safe”.
He said: “We are in the process of upgrading its CCTV network with a £3million investment in new cameras and equipment to provide better coverage of our town centres, alongside the new state-of-the-art control room.
“Once complete, 100 per cent of Havering’s CCTV cameras will be fully operational.”
According to data from the Met, 81 violent and sexual offences were reported in Romford town centre in April – up from 74 in 2024 and 70 in 2023.
Drawing on a Freedom of Information request, Cllr Taylor said around a third of CCTV cameras in the borough were broken. The data showed that 23 out of 72 cameras were out of order.
He added: “Women and children should be free to walk the streets of Romford, how they want and when they want, free from the fear of crime.”
He says the council should use unspent money accrued from developers for infrastructure improvements, known as the community infrastructure levy (CIL).
Millions are still to be allocated, Cllr Taylor says, and “are free to be spent on CCTV”.
Data from November revealed the council was sitting on £8.205m, of which £3.076m was still unallocated.
Cllr Morgon, however, said that £750,000 of CIL money was spent on upgrading the CCTV network.
The council leader added: “Earlier this year, we held a crime summit at the town hall, bringing together various partner agencies from the community to discuss way to reduce crime and improve street safety, and we are considering holding annual summits moving forward.
“However, these events take a lot of time and resources to organise, and risk taking our staff away from the vital case work they carry out within the community, so the benefits of future summits need to be weighed against officers’ priorities.”
No arrests been made in connection with the rape, the Met said on June 27. Enquiries are ongoing.
