It may not seem obvious but there is a link between the letters in last weeks Guardian from Andrew Pelling (Riots and crime) and Luke Clancy (job creation).

Home Office figures for January 2012 show that the large CR0 post code area had the highest level of crime for any postal area in the whole of the UK, and this is six months on from the criminal behaviour during the Croydon riots.

It is interesting to view crime mapping figures for February which are available from the Metropolitan Police website (www.maps.met.police.uk) which show that 2379 notifiable crimes were logged representing a crime rate of 7.2%. Now drill down to Fairfield ward which is the are that includes the town centre area and we have a crime count of 314 - a crime rate of 22.3%.

Go further into the sub-wards and you have one with an astronomical crime rate of 90%.

Given these crime rates how does one expect new jobs to be created in Croydon. I am aware of one local based business that has had to alter its working hours for its staff so as to reduce the probability of street crime against its employees once they leave office premises.

Before touting for companies to set up business in Croydon to create jobs and wealth for the local community the building blocks must be put into place first.

At a local level crime and anti-social behaviour need to be brought under effective control and one aspect for this to occur is that more police officers need to be put on the streets to create a visible presence, act as a deterrence for crime and anti-social behaviour and to re-assure the public.

On a national level there needs to be radical changes to the soft-touch criminal justice system - over to the three MP's who represent Croydon, Gavin Barwell, Malcolm Wicks and Richard Ottaway to influence and lobby in this area.

MILAN PATEL CROYDON