downsmail.co.uk
£2,360 cost of a night on town
AN average Saturday night out in Maidstone costs the people of the borough more than £2,360 – with policing and CCTV taking up the lions’ share of the cost. It costs Kent Police – which pro-
vides police officers, who have then to process suspects and investigate crime – £1,146.08 to cover the town centre each Saturday night. Maid- stone Council spends £616.44 per night onCCTVcoverage – equating to £4,327 aweek and £225,000 a year. The council spends a further £400
each Saturday night on extra street cleansing and providing a public urinal and £199.80 on providing li- censing enforcement officers. The findings come from a Night-
time Economy Task and Finish Group, with partners from Kent Po- lice and various council depart- ments. It was set up to review the costs of maintaining a safe and clean town centre. The group’s report to the council’s housing and environment commit- tee says the nighttime economy bringsmanybenefits to the borough, including employment and im- proves the positive perception and awareness of the borough.
However, it also creates potential
for problems, such as anti-social be- haviour, crime andwaste. Although the nighttime economy
is often perceived as being centred on the town’s nightclubs with activ- ity post-11pm, the term also covers restaurants, pubs and cultural ven- ues. There is support for these to be developed further, to offer greater diversity and to attract a wider age range, according to the report. The agencies jointly funding Maidstone’s nighttime economy each Saturday together spend about £122,840 in a year. Volunteers play an important part,
too, with the taxi marshalls, street pastors and Urban Blue bus helpers providing more than 4,000 hours of voluntary cover each year, dealing with more than 600 incidents and re- ducing ambulance call-outs and A&E admissions due to alcohol. Maidstone has nine pubs and
clubs which open as late as 3am on Saturdays. The report concludes that these businesses contribute almost £323,000 in business rates, of which the borough council gets 40%, (£129,116.70), KCC 10% and the re- maining 50% to government.
www.directorshairandbeauty.co.uk 01622 738772
Late night Thurs
Mayor Cllr Daniel Moriarty with the Dogs Trust team at the new shop Dogs Trust shop opens
TAILS were wagging when Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare char- ity, unveiled its new donation centre and charity shop in Maidstone. Mayor of Maidstone Cllr Daniel Moriarty cut the ribbon to declare the
shop open while another VIP – a very important pooch – fromDogs Trust Canterbury greeted shoppers with plenty of licks in return for a scratch be- hind the ear. MichelleWooding, manager of Dogs Trust Maidstone donation centre
and charity shop, said: “We are very excited to set up shop here and have been overwhelmed by the support of the local community. This is our first donation centre and it will be a vital tool in helping us to store and collect donations of all shapes and sizes for our 21 charity shops across the UK. “We had a successful first weekend with many items sold, and are now
in need of more donations to keep our shelves full. We stock everything and anything, frombooks and clothes to ornaments and household items. We also offer a free collection service for larger items.” Anyone with items to donate to the shop can drop them into Dogs Trust Maidstone Donation Centre, Farleigh Hill Retail Park, Farleigh Hill, Tovil from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday. Alter- natively you can call them on 01622 755800 or email maid-
stone.shop@
dogstrust.org.uk to make arrangements for collections of furniture, clothes, bric a brac and electrical items.
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