Two town centres are set to get a slice of a £900,000 fund to help make streets safer.

Sittingbourne and Sheerness will receive the government cash over the next two years, which will go towards extra CCTV, street marshalls, improved lighting and outreach workers.

In total, Swale council will receive more than £320,000 split across two years with £154,413 coming in October 2023, followed by a further £169,325 in the second.

It forms part of the Home Office’s “Safer Streets” programme aimed at reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, tackling violence against women and girls, as well as supporting local businesses, establishing neighbourhood watch groups and improving local parks.

Swale borough is to get seven extra fixed CCTV cameras, as well as three “rapid deployment” cameras. The location of these cameras is not yet decided.

The High Street, the area opposite the train station and nearby retail park will be the focus of the scheme in Sittingbourne.

This comes after calls for tougher policing in the town after it was labelled as “unsafe” and “intimidating”.

High Street traders have said they feared reports of shoplifting, assault and smashed windows would put off people from visiting their stores.

A number of dispersal orders were also issued for the High Street and the retail park where KFC has banned teens at peak times.

Meanwhile, in Sheerness the funding will cover the High Street and the Broadway, the train station and Beachfields Park.

There are fears a cut in youth club funding is responsible for a rise in anti-social behaviour on the Island, with a spate of catapult attacks on animals and property, as well as vandalism.

Both High Streets are expected to receive at least one Street Marshal.

The latest cash will pay for additional youth programs that will be based in both Sittingbourne and Sheerness and will aim at challenging the behaviour and perceptions of young people towards crime as well as street marshalls to help keep the town centres safer.

Those who work in challenging areas at night will also be given training in dealing with that effectively and there will be investment in Swale Link, a crime-reduction radio scheme used by traders.

There will also be extra monitoring of empty buildings that attract anti-social behaviour, and fencing around the old county library in Sheerness which was recently attacked by arsonists.

Cllr Richard Palmer, the chairman of Swale council’s community committee, says “making sure people feel safe in the borough” is one of the council’s top priorities.

He added: “The Safer Streets Fund was a chance to bring in additional resources to support work being done by ourselves and the police to tackle issues that really matter to local people.

“Of course, we would have loved to try to get even more resources to tackle the issues in other parts of the borough, but the criteria for which areas would receive funding were quite limiting, so we had to make sure we put together a plan that would secure the funding.

“These town centres are bustling and lively hubs of our community, so by making those streets safer, the surrounding areas and the whole of the borough will be safer too.”

The funding, from the government, was secured through the Community Safety Partnership working with Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott.