Task force and gates form crime crackdown
A trailblazing task force is set to be launched and two new gates installed at Brenchley Gardens in Maidstone to help police the town centre, which has become a magnet for crime and anti-social behaviour over recent years.
The spike in offending has led to calls from residents and councillors for preventative action to be taken.
The task force will be a joint enterprise between Kent Police, Maidstone Borough Council and Kent County Council.
From June it is understood at least five PCs and one sergeant will be working seven days a week in central Maidstone, alongside a Kent County Council warden and members of the violence reduction unit, housing and community protection teams
A spokesman for Maidstone council this week said: “The Maidstone Town Centre Task Force has been planned for some time and is in the final stages of being implemented. The recruitment process for the roles is currently taking place and it is hoped that the task force will be officially launched as soon as these roles have been filled.
“It will focus on working within the town centre, to help reduce crime, anti-social behaviour and the wider determinants of crime.”
Commenting on the creation of the squad, Maidstone and the Weald MP Helen Grant (Con), said: “I have pledged to work with the police and Maidstone Borough Council to do all we can to stamp out antisocial behaviour, thuggery and crime in the town centre and I know the police have plans that are well advanced for a special multi-agency task force to tackle the problem.
“I understand it will be the first such task force created for a town centre in the whole of Kent, and I look forward to its launch in June.”
In September last year, councillors discussed a variety of security measures including improved CCTV at crime hotspot Brenchley Gardens, more police patrols and even for the park to be shut overnight.
But at a planning meeting last Thursday, Maidstone councillors voted through plans to install two gates at the park.
They will be placed on the two entrances via Station Road.
A similar scheme at Mote Park saw crime and trouble-making rates tumble.
Unanimously passing the plans, councillors were keen to point out they didn’t want to shut the park but were aware they needed to do something.
Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib) said: “The whole raison d’être of the gates is not to close Brenchley Gardens at night, because actually its access to those living in McKenzie court and is an easier way into those properties.
“It’s just to reduce the number of exits which makes it easier to police I think.”
But he also hit out at works that had happened in the gardens that weren’t approved by councillors first.
He said: “Because it’s in a conservation area there have been things that have gone on in Brenchley Gardens but didn’t get signed off by members, they just happened.
“The pond was filled in and trees have disappeared very quickly, I think we need to be quite careful.
“The gardens do fall within a conservation area therefore there is a planning bar in terms of some of these events which keep occurring.”
Meanwhile Cllr Mike English (Lib) said other alternatives had been considered: “It’s much better to take this approach as the alternative would’ve lit up the entire gardens.
“There were concerns that would have a very negative ecological impact because there’s a lot of habitat and diversity in the park.”