Chief Inspector (CI) Vanessa Foster (Kent Police) was in attendance to give an update on policing in the Eastern area. She introduced Inspector Julia Bassindale who would be the Community Safety Unit Inspector for Swale.

CI Foster gave an update on the following issues:

·       The Neighbourhood Model was close to being fully staffed;

·       the Child Centred Policing Team was now fully staffed and went live in May 2024. They dealt with the most vulnerable and were very proactive;

·       VAWG (Violence against women and girls) was a Force priority, supporting victims and dealing with perpetrators;

·       the Sports Connect Project was introduced in the summer 2024. Young people taking part were able to participate in activities such as football and fishing;

·       the National Intelligence Model looked at data and intelligence which identified priority areas so that teams could target suspects;

·       violent crime was down by 6%, Swale was a safe place, unprovoked attacks were rare; and

·       Swale was 300 shop-lifting crimes down on last year and there was an extra 10% charge rate. Swale were the best in the county for dealing with shop-lifting.

The following questions were raised:

·       So far the Safer Streets funding had not benefitted the Eastern area, would there be an opportunity for Faversham to benefit in the future?;

·       residents regularly reported incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB), what support could be provided?;

·       was there a proactive approach to deal with rural fly-tipping?; and

·       how could British Transport Police be brought in to deal with ASB at train stations?

CI Foster responded that the data showed that Faversham did not experience the same problems as other parts of Swale which was why the Safer Streets funding had not been targeted there. The Police were aware of some problems such as shed break-ins and they were quick to deal with them. The Community Services Manager added the Safer Streets Funding had been allocated by the previous Government and officers were waiting to hear if there would be further funding going forward. Regarding ASB, CI Foster said that there would be extra beat officers next year and Police Community Support Officers could be moved over to Faversham to bridge the gap. The Rural Task Force in Faversham worked in partnership with beat officers to tackle fly-tipping. Intelligence was needed to deal with it proactively. A public campaign would be an effective way to tackle it. British Transport Police had limited resources but they did work with the Police on operations. There had been an increase in platform staff to remove offenders and hand them over to the Police.

The Community Services Manager gave an update on the Swale Community Safety Partnership Plan which was created each year and set out the priorities for the Partnership, based upon data and consultation with partners and the public.

The Partnership were keen to undertake a consultation with Elected Members at County/Borough/Parish level to contribute to the review of these priorities.

The survey would close on 3 January 2025 and could be accessed via this link:

https://forms.office.com/e/qTwncsZGi1