Anti-social behaviour tackled

Published Wednesday 5 October, 2022
Last updated on Wednesday 12 October, 2022

Local shopkeepers are being encouraged to sign up to Swale’s new radio communication scheme to help reduce crime and theft in Swale town centres.

Swale Borough Council has joined forces with Kent Police and the National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABCP) to create the Business Crime Reduction Partnership who will run the scheme.

Previously, a similar scheme was run by a private company, but has now been relaunched by the partnership using the council’s CCTV.

The new scheme is called Swale Link and will be available to local businesses and organisations in Faversham, Sittingbourne, Sheerness and Leysdown.

Cllr Richard Palmer, chair of the community committee at the council, said:

“We launched Swale Link last month and have had an encouraging response from local businesses.

“We’ve had 33 businesses join up within our first month of operating the new scheme, and we’re hoping to gain around 80-100 members in total to help us reduce crime and improve public safety.”

Cllr Elliott Jayes, vice chair of the community committee at the council, said:

“We hope the new partnership will help us support our business owners against theft, petty crime and anti-social behaviour.

“The new scheme will allow us to act swiftly on regular offenders, helping us prevent and deter crime.

We’ve also created a new business crime website for members to share intelligence with each other, such as photos to help our CCTV team, Kent Police and other businesses look out for offenders banned from the scheme.

“Unlike the previous scheme, we’re operating a banned from one, banned from all policy, meaning that if an offender is banned from one business, they won’t be able to access any other members businesses.”

For more information about the scheme, including how to join, visit www.swale.gov.uk/swale-link.