Community safety partnership plan

During 2024/25 the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) undertook a variety of projects and initiatives linked to the actions above. Below are more details about some of the initiatives/projects mentioned above and also some additional projects which were run during the year to address issues which arose during the year.

Although it is sometimes difficult to measure success rates, the Partnership believes that these projects and their successes have made an impact and has resulted in positive outcomes for local people.

Acquisitive crime including shoplifting, theft and burglary

The Safer Towns Partnership now has 32 members signed up to the scheme and is running in Tonbridge Town Centre, as well as in Kings Hill, Snodland and Wouldham.

There are also two Safer Spaces locations in Tonbridge, in McDonalds and the new Morrisons Daily in Tonbridge High Street.

Safeguarding Vulnerable People – to include mental health, child criminal sexual exploitation, modern slavery and human trafficking, substance misuse, fraud and scams and youth diversion

The CSP continues to commission The Kenward Trust to engage with young people in the borough around alcohol and substance misuse (and the associated anti-social behaviour linked to these substances). During the year they were able to visit five different locations and engaged with over 500 individuals. The main issues they have seen is cannabis use, and alcohol use and they speak to the young people around the dangers of using these substances. We will continue to commission their work (subject to confirmation from the Police and Crime Commissioner) during 2025/26.

A number of diversionary activities for young people ran during the year. This year funding was available through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to provide youth provision within the borough. Salus were able to run this provision and were able to support 185 young people. This was through detached youth work and then summer holiday activities during the school summer holidays. The photograph gives an example of an activity that took place during this time.

Work to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking continued with the police carrying out a number of operations in various locations across the borough. On those occasions, no issues were identified but the police will continue to gather evidence and act on this where appropriate to ensure that no one is suffering these issues.

Violent Crime – including Violence Against Women and Girls and Stalking

The Serious and Organised Crime Group continues to meet on a monthly basis, and this brings partners together to share information about individuals likely to be involved in organised/violent crime. A number of operations have taken place, led by the Police, leading to a number of arrests, the seizure of cannabis and disruption to organised crime within the borough. There is currently one identified organised crime group within the borough and partners continue to share information to ensure that we can disrupt any new groups that may be identified.

During the year a charity, Restore, Reform, Respect were able to deliver the ‘I didn’t know that’ anti-crime, early intervention schools project to 351 pupils. They visited six schools within the Borough, including both primary and secondary schools. The feedback received from pupils and staff was positive with comments such as:

• ‘I know now how bad it is to be in a gang’.
• ‘I found it interesting to know that gangs from London are coming to our area and how harsh prison conditions are’.
• ‘The children were thoroughly engaged and found your insights and experiences both eye opening and thought provoking. Your presentation not only deepened their understanding of the consequences of crime but also encouraged them to reflect on the importance of making positive choices in their own lives’.

The CSP was able to obtain funding from the PCC to run self defence classes for women and girls. These were held in Tonbridge and Larkfield with over 50 women and girls attending. Feedback was very positive with attendees feeling more confident and safe within the borough.

The Police also held a number of Walk and Talk events during the year, which enabled them to engage with women and get their views.

Protection Against Stalking were also able to run training for partners which was well attended by a variety of organisations.

Domestic Abuse

The Community Safety Partnership continued to provide funding for DAVSS to work with medium risk victims of domestic abuse and during the year they were able to receive 376 referrals, an increase from 310 the previous year. We also continue to support Lookahead (who work with high-risk victims of domestic abuse) and they were able to support over 344 people throughout their IDVA service (compared to 335 the previous year).

A number of programmes were run during the year to support survivors including four Freedom Programmes, with 33 women in total attending. Four Own My Life courses were also run with 43 attendees, as well as a Children’s Freedom Programme with 7 children attending.

The One Stop Drop-In service in Tonbridge continued to run throughout the year. These are now held in-person and although numbers were low, they are gradually starting to increase.

The Community Domestic Abuse Perpetrators Programme (CDAP) also continued to run in Tonbridge and at the end of March 7 men were active in the programme. During the year there were 6 referrals to CDAP from individuals in Tonbridge & Malling.

Anti-social Behaviour including environmental crime and road safety

Anti-social behaviour continues to be a concern for residents. Residents can report anti-social behaviour to the Borough Council and during the year they received 492 complaints, this is compared to 328 the previous year (an increase of 164 reports). The majority of these related to neighbour disputes. 12 Community Protection Warning letters were issued, with three Community Protection Warning Notices issued.

We received three ASB Case Review (previously known as the Community Trigger) applications during the year, although none of these met the threshold. However, all were offered support with their issues, and this helped them to feel that their voices were being heard.

This year Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council funded an Anti-Social Behaviour Enforcement Team. They ran from April to September 2024 and provided high visibility patrols, as well as enforcement against the Public Space Protection Order. During the time they were in place they submitted 456 reports to the Borough Council on issues they had seen whilst patrolling the borough. As part of this they also identified 80 incidents of flytipping. The project was also awarded a Silver award in the prestigious iESE Awards 2025 (Working Together category).

As part of the PSPO to tackle nuisance vehicles we issued 51 Fixed Penalty Notices to those who had been seen causing a problem in a particular location. We were also able to issue 24 warning letters and the police were able to patrol the area and put 7 dispersal orders in place to prevent the gathering of vehicles.

The Borough Council was also able to use four mobile CCTV cameras to help resolve neighbour disputes and provide evidence to the police. During 2024/25 the cameras were placed in 8 different locations. They will continue to be moved to different locations as required during 2025/26.

During the year we also attended four community events where members of the community can speak to representatives from the Community Safety Partnership about any concerns they have and pick up free crime prevention items. These were held in Tonbridge, Wouldham and Snodland (twice).

To help resolve anti-social behaviour issues the Mediation service (Maidstone Mediation and West Kent Mediation) were able to provide a number of different types of mediation, including neighbour mediation, parent and teen mediation and anger management. During the year the Mediation service offered neighbour mediation to 11 clients, Family mediation to 3 clients, and Anger Management to 8 clients.

Preventing Extremism and Hate

Representatives from the Community Safety Unit continue to attend Channel Panels (where individuals who may be at risk of being drawn into extremism are discussed). This year Panel meetings were moved online and continued to meet. However, during this year there were three referrals discussed at the Channel Panels from Tonbridge & Malling.

The CSP also linked in with Social Media campaigns to raise awareness of ‘Prevent’ and counter terrorism and a number of messages have been sent out to let the public know about how to report concerns or suspicious activity.

We were able to run Prevent graffiti and stickering training which enabled some front-line staff to know what to look out for and who to report this to.