Toilets should never have been closed
Beggars in doorways, poor lighting, the lack of public toilets and problems with litter were all raised at the meeting.
Julie Lucas from Banks in Bank Street agreed with Mr O’Quigley of Mu Mu’s, saying: “I have been here since 2001 and I have never seen it as bad.”
She said she had witnessed vagrants in the doorway of Banks and in Beluga’s doorway while it was open on a Saturday night and the police appeared powerless to deal with it.
Geoff Licence at Renaissance Crafts in Starnes Court, off Union Street, said he paid to have the area around his shop cleaned, but said he was plagued with rubbish from nearby Tesco in Week Street.
The car park used by Jobs in Kent in the lower High Street was also said to be frequented by vagrants who defecated there and discarded hypodermic needles.
High Street ward councillor Clive English (Lib Dem) said his experience of the 101 service was ‘don’t bother’ and that the toilets should never have been closed.
“The problem in Maidstone isn’t actually a lack of powers, it is a lack of will and the complacency of the senior leadership of Maidstone council.”
Maidstone council’s waste and street scene officer John Edwards said public toilets needed to be fit for purpose, adding that his team would retrieve any needles found, and urged businesses to contact him. Dropouts defecating in doorways, drug users injecting themselves in public, people urinating in the streets and scavenging in shop bins for food.
Shockingly, this was the picture painted of Maidstone town centre in 2014 at a meeting called to debate the issue of begging in the County Town this week.
Pulled together by Maidstone Town Centre Management, the well attended assembly agreed the town had deteriorated.
And the message to Maidstone Borough Council and Kent Police couldn’t have been clearer – enough is enough.
Frustrated retailers, office workers, club owners and councillors lined up to give graphic accounts of repulsive behaviour tarnishing the town’s reputation.
Although Insp Jody GaganCook was there to talk about new powers police have to disperse beggars and outreach worker Will Myers, about the work being done with the street population, the pressing issue for businesses was how to clean up the town.
The most shocking tale came from Mu Mu’s owner Ciaran O’Quigley in Week Street, who said a family visiting his restaurant had witnessed a man urinating with his trousers down outside, while his partner injected herself with drugs.
“People are concerned about how Maidstone is turning into a complete and utter doss hole.
“Since 1992 I have had the police telling me to get my house in order. I think it is time the police got out onto the street