West Putney is experiencing a wave of violence, with incidents up 63% year-on-year and January alone recording 36 cases, the highest single month for years, according to official police figures.
The data, drawn from a ward panel presentation by the West Putney Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) and Police records, shows violence and sexual offence incidents rising from 56 in the three months from November 2024 to January 2025, to 91 in the same window a year later.
January this year is the most recent complete month available. Of the 36 incidents that month, 20 were on three streets: Carslake Road (11 incidents), Cortis Road (6), and Cortis Terrace (3). The SNT has formally identified the surrounding area as a drug supply hotspot, naming it as one of the ward’s three current policing priorities.
“There has been an increase in the number of reports received concerning the supply and use of drugs in and around the Ashburton Estate,” the SNT’s priority statement reads. “Many of the reports are specific to Cortis Road area and surrounding parade of shops.”
Not all the news is bad
Anti-social behaviour tells a different story. ASB incidents fell sharply, from 87 in the September–October 2025 period to 46 in November 2025–January 2026, a drop the data links to police action against street drinking near the shops on Ashburton Road, the SNT’s second priority. That is a reduction of 47% compared to the preceding period, and 28% compared to the same window a year ago.
Motor vehicle crime spiked in January 2026, reaching 18 incidents after just four in November and seven in December. The SNT issued two vehicle crime alerts the following month, in February, describing vehicle theft as “a growing trend” and reporting catalytic converter thefts. The ward, in the SNT’s own words, remains “a high offending ward for theft of motor vehicles,” with Granard Avenue named as the current hotspot. Earlier coverage of vehicle crime on Upper Richmond Road described the SNT’s response to a run of overnight break-ins in the same period.
Putney.news previously reported that West Putney records around 130 crimes a month compared to roughly 100 in East Putney. October 2025 was the highest month in the most recent 12-month dataset at 134 total crimes; January 2026 came in at 115.
Raise it tonight
The West Putney SNT holds its next ward panel meeting tonight, Tuesday 10 March, at 6:30pm at Granard Primary School on Cortis Road – the heart of the violence problems. Ward panel meetings are the public forum where residents can question the officers responsible for local policing. If you live in West Putney and want to ask what is being done about violence on Carslake Road, or vehicle crime on Granard Avenue, tonight is the place to do it.
The meeting details and a link to add it to your calendar are here.
Future meetings are scheduled for 30 June, 29 September, and 15 December 2026, all at Granard Primary, 18:30.
To report a crime: 999 in an emergency; 101 for non-emergencies; or online at met.police.uk/ro/report.
To contact the SNT directly (for non-crime queries about local policing): WestPutney@contact.metengage.co.uk or 0208 785 8857. To sign up for local crime alerts: metengage.co.uk
