Medway Council approves Community Safety Partnership plan to combat violence against women and girls - including more plainclothes police on streets

Plans to draft in more plain-clothes officers to step in and prevent assaults on women and girls on nights out have been given the go ahead.

Medway Council has approved a new Community Safety Partnership (CSP) plan which sets out the priorities and methods for reducing crime and disorder across the Towns over the next three years.

The CSP sets out four priorities for policing: tackle anti-social behaviour, reduce re-offending, preventing violence against women and girls, and crack down on problems related to drugs and alcohol.

The plan is an agreement between Medway Council, Kent Police, the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB), the Probation Service, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, and other key stakeholders and is an update from the 2020 version.

The report, which received cross-party support at a full council meeting held on July 18, says its goals have been developed through assessment of the issues currently facing the Towns and gives steps to be taken to combat them.

Speaking in support of the plan, the portfolio holder for community safety, highways and enforcement, Cllr Alex Paterson (Lab) said: “Our four focus areas are not lacking in ambition.

“There’s scarcely a man, woman, or child living in Medway whose lives are not touched by anti-social behaviour, violence against women and girls, or drug and alcohol abuse, and tackling reoffending cuts across all crime.

“Our commitment is to deliver the best service possible to the people of Medway. The plan will be reviewed on an annual basis and we will consult with the public to ask how we are doing and to find out what they would like us to do on their behalf.”

Former Tory leader, Cllr Adrian Gulvin, criticised the new version of the plan for lacking detail.

He said: “I do have concerns this document has shrunk from eight to five pages, and there’s quite a few really important things that are no longer in the document.

“There’s no mention of child sexual exploitation, modern slavery and human trafficking, reducing vulnerability, and the work of protectional safeguarding, along with mental health.

“All of these factors have a considerable effect on how we’re going to try and keep Medway safe.”

But Cllr Paterson had said a longer plan “risked including everything and changing nothing”.

He added that just because the plan outlined four key priorities did not mean combating crime was limited to those issues.

For violence against women and girls, the CSP plan puts focus on aggressively targeting known and potential offenders as well as improving support for victims.

To do this, the plan says partners intend to step up policing to be more visible in town centres and other public spaces.

This includes policing through Project Vigilant - where plainclothes officers are active to identify potential offenders who might prey upon vulnerable people on a night out and step in before sexual assault or other crimes are committed.

The CSP plan also has a focus on reducing domestic violence through providing education opportunities to better identify when it might be occurring and how to report it.

The plan also requires partners to assess their own performance and report how to improve if they are lacking.

For reducing reoffending, partners are to help break barriers to criminals who have served their time in getting work, accommodation, and increase their personal well-being in an attempt to help them avoid spiraling into further criminality.

To do this, the plan aims to increase the availability of Creating Future Opportunity (CFO) Activity Hubs, where people leaving prison can build skills and take part in activities to build healthier, more stable, and fulfilling lives.

In order to tackle problems relating to drugs and alcohol, Kent Police is to increase efforts to break up organised gangs, disrupting supply lines and support those at risk of falling into criminality.

Health partners in the CSP will reduce the prescribing of habit forming prescribed drugs, provide routes for people in or leaving prison to get support to quit drugs and alcohol, and deliver more education around harm reduction and awareness for children.

The plan was approved unanimously and will be in action until 2027.