In January, MP Marsha de Cordova told residents that Wandsworth Council intended to begin possession proceedings against Kevin Stratford. Last Thursday, the council’s barrister told the court it was not seeking possession. It was asking for the injunction to continue.
These are not the same thing. Residents who have spent more than a year complaining about what happens at Fownes Street (and who had been told eviction was imminent) are still waiting for something to change.
Putney.news has covered this case since December. We reported the original complaints, the December injunction, and January’s confirmation that possession proceedings were planned. We were in court last Thursday. What we saw was a council that arrived without properly serving its own evidence, has still not applied for contempt despite documented breaches, and had not managed to give a tenant replacement keys in the nine weeks since the injunction was granted.
The return date for the hearing was meant to happen in early January. It happened on 20 February, six weeks late, during which time Lee Preston, the man at the centre of the complaints, was released from prison, re-arrested, and is now due out again this week.
A case without a strategy
The council’s updated witness statement, describing continued antisocial behaviour after the injunction was granted, was dated 3 February. It had not been served on the tenant and was not on the court file when the hearing started. The judge initially declined to read it.
At the same hearing, Kevin Stratford told the court he had climbed over his balcony to get into his flat because he had no keys. The judge stopped him before he could say more. The council was asked whether it was pursuing contempt proceedings for what appeared to be a breach of the injunction. It was not.
These are not isolated failures. They add up to something: a council pursuing a legal process it has not properly prepared for, at a pace that has allowed the situation to deteriorate rather than resolve.
This is also not the first time. In July 2025, Wandsworth cabinet member for housing Cllr Aydin Dikerdem responded to national coverage of the Drina Gray case (a council tenant who subjected her neighbours to two years of death threats and harassment while the council failed to act) with a promise. “We accept that we could have acted more swiftly,” he said. “Following this case, changes are being made to our anti-social behaviour case management system.”
The Fownes Street case has been live since at least December 2024. The injunction has been in place since December 2025. The question of what those changes look like in practice is one Wandsworth Council has not answered.
There is a more straightforward option the council does not appear to have considered. Stratford himself has made clear that Preston is the root cause. Preston has keys to the property, Preston was identified in the most serious allegations in the original injunction, and Preston is about to be released again. If Stratford were moved to a different property, Preston would not know the address. The situation that has made residents’ lives miserable for over a year might end.
Instead, the case now moves to a directions hearing in 28 days, after which a full hearing will be scheduled. Based on the pace so far, that could be months away. One resident has already moved out of their home because they couldn’t take it any more.
Lee Preston is due out this week. There is no new plan.
What you can do
Residents at Fownes Street and the surrounding area who want to raise concerns about how the case is being handled can contact their ward councillors. Fownes Street falls within Falconbrook ward, represented by Cllr Simon Hogg (cllr.s.hogg@wandsworth.gov.uk) and Cllr Kate Stock (cllr.k.stock@wandsworth.gov.uk).
