We should be able to feel safe on our streets, and one of my long-standing priorities has been to work closely with Kent police and our town centre management in tackling crime and antisocial behaviour in Maidstone and the Weald.
I regularly hold roundtable meetings with constituents and stakeholders, most recently covering incidents of antisocial behaviour in an area of Barming, at the Mid-Kent shopping centre in Allington, and in Week Street and Brenchley Gardens, near my Constituency office.
In Maidstone, over the last year, I have welcomed a significant increase in police numbers. We are also benefitting from a new neighbourhood police model for the town centre, and the introduction of a new schools taskforce too. In my postbag and my community outreach surgeries, however, I continue to receive reports of crime and antisocial behaviour from distressed constituents and families.
Every community and locality has differing threats and challenges. To help me understand more about these issues in your particular area of Maidstone and Malling, and to work on further measures and solutions with authorities, I am seeking your views.
To this end, I have set out the short survey below.