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TALKS: MP David Lammy and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg survey damage on Tottenham High Road

TOTTENHAM’S POLITICAL leaders gathered at an emergency crisis meeting in the aftermath of the riots as they worked out plans to repair damage that could run into millions of pounds.

It followed the night of rioting and looting in which buildings were torched and businesses and homes were destroyed by fires while police looked on from the barricade they formed to protect Tottenham police station.

Young people attacked police cars, set fire to a bus, smashed shop windows and threw stones at officers in riot gear in scenes that have repeated with frightening speed across London and in Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.

A landmark building on the corner of Lansdowne Road, home to Carpetright and the flats above, was completely gutted and will have to be demolished.

BLAZE: Tottenham's Carpetright store up in flames

The job centre, the post office, Aldi’s supermarket, a lawyer’s office, Fitness First gym, Tottenham Hotspur’s ticket office and gambling shops have all suffered extensive damage.

Early estimates suggest the cost or repairing homes will be in the region of £7 - £9million. The total bill of damage to shops, commercial properties, industrial estates, and public buildings is still being calculated.

The disturbances have put many people out of work where there are already 54 applications for every job vacancy, and 10,514 people on Jobseeker’s Allowance, according to latest figures in July.

David Lammy MP condemned the affray stating the actions of a minority on Saturday, August 6, had “ripped the heart out” of Tottenham.

Speaking exclusively to The Voice at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, in Tottenham, David Lammy said: “Tottenham, I think, is the most resilient part of Britain because we have been here before. We have had to rebuild before.

“The scale of the damage is immense, but actually what is worse is the tremendous human damage. I know what is like when the N17 postcode is something you are embarrassed about and you don’t want to put on your employment form. I know what it’s like when you meet a girl’s parents for the first time and they are horrified you are from Tottenham. It’s the stigma that is so damaging.

“There’s such a tremendous sadness that after so much hard work put in over so many years this has happened. It makes you want to cry. I’m so sad for the good kids in Tottenham with dreams who will be stereotyped.

“The perception of Tottenham before the weekend was not perfect; it was a poor area but there were things we were doing to be proud of.

“Now, we have set ourselves back. We need the Government. We need the mayor and we will need the acts of generosity we are seeing now. Ikea, for example, wants to help homeless people with furniture.

“We cannot stigmatise a community for another generation; embarrassed by the fact that this is the community that is their home. We will do it. For every stone thrower there are a thousand community builders who will be there to make that happen.”

Lammy’s comments came ahead of a mass clean-up operation on Tuesday as communities rallied round in Camden, Hackney, Lewisham, Croydon and Ealing to piece their neighbourhoods back together following a third night of looting, arson and all-round mayhem.

DESTROYED: Reeves furniture shop in Croydon, south London

He was joined by Haringey Council leader Claire Kober and Councillor Bernice Vanier, cabinet member for community safety and cohesion, the GLA member for Enfield and Haringey, Joanne McCartney, also a Met Police Authority member.

Representatives from Haringey Racial Equality Council and the Haringey Community and Police Consultative Group (HCPCG) were also in attendance.

The first riots broke out in Tottenham following the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan, of Broadwater Farm, who was killed by police officers last Thursday in an alleged exchange of fire.

Fred Ellis, chairman of HCPCG, set up following the 1985 Broadwater Farm riots to mediate between the community and the police, said he raised criticisms of the way Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) handled the aftermath of Mr Duggan’s death.

More than a day and a half after the shooting, his family had still heard nothing from police, Ellis said. Haringey’s local police claimed it would be inappropriate to contact the family because the investigation was being handled centrally.

It was this lack of contact that triggered the peaceful protest where family and friends marched to Tottenham police station to ask what was going on.

He said: “This is a sad day. There is a particular mindset in Tottenham about the police that is resurrected every time something like this happens. People will not forget people like Cynthia Jarrett. Trust in the police is at a new low. I want to make it clear that up until last Thursday, the police and the community were working together well. Young people were being engaged.

“In many ways this is worse than the Broadwater Farm riots. Then it was just one house that burned down and that was too many. This time it was so many homes and businesses. People have lost so much.

“Businesses were just starting to come back to the area, but who will come here now? Who would want to employ someone from Tottenham? After what happened, we were able to bounce back quite quickly. This time around it is going to take a very long time.”

Homeless residents were given refuge at Tottenham Green Leisure Centre, in Philip Lane. Plans also need to be made to redirect people to after the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) was damaged.

A total of 29 residents have approached the council’s emergency housing team for assistance and have since been rehoused.

Donations of clothes have been collected by local church groups and residents and are currently at Apex House, in Seven Sisters Road, for those in need.

Sharon Grant, the widow of the late Tottenham MP, was also at the three-hour secret meeting at Bernie Grant Arts Centre on Sunday as a strategy for recovery was thrashed out.

Grant, chair of Haringey CAB, said: “The reaction from some people was entirely disproportionate. Their actions have had a devastating effect on the people of Tottenham.

“We will have to wait and see what the damage is, but we already know it is going to be in the millions.”

Staff at the Tottenham branch of the CAB have been moved to the Turnpike Lane office and will hold extra advice sessions to cope with any extra pressure as a result of the situation.

DAMAGE AT A GLANCE…

Tottenham:

- 45 homes and 100 shops ruined
- Five buildings with “serious” structural damage
- Youth offending office forced to shut
- Mental health services forced to shut
- Repairs to streets estimated to cost £227,000
- Transport for London (TfL) assessing cost of damage to High Road

Elsewhere:

- Police car smashed in Enfield Town
- Enfield Sainsbury’s smashed and looted
- Sony warehouse in Enfield alight, jobs lost
- Reeves furniture store in Croydon torched to the ground
- Debenhams and Currys ransacked in Clapham Junction
- Bus set on fire in Peckham
- Brixton Footlocker set on fire
- Peckham commercial buildings ablaze
- Ealing shopping centre set on fire
- Cars burned in Bristol as rioters raided jewellery shops
- Mobbers loot Tesco and burn cars in Liverpool
- £500,000 worth of damage to Birmingham’s high end shopping centre
- England friendly against Holland at Wembley postponed
- Over 215 arrested, more than 27 charged
- More than 50 police officers injured