downsmail.co.uk ‘Good’ police force not working


IT HAS become a tiresome and frustrating reality that we simply do not have a police “presence” in our communities any more.


It took eight days for a PCSO to visit Neil Willett when a car passenger red a ball-bearing at his Jeep, smashing two windows at a cost to him personally. It was one of four attacks in Leeds village that night.


Back in February, a foreign lorry


driver caused £3,000 worth of damage to the 300-year-old wall of the same village’s former forge, owned by Audrey Browne. The driver escaped, despite being pursued by another resident, Tracie Carlsund, whose property was also damaged. The details were passed to Kent Police, but nothing appears to have progressed.


Police, incidentally, are meant to enforce the HGV ban through the village, but rarely do. A few weeks ago, Gilda Waugh, of Snodland, complained of criminal and antisocial activity in her local park. Despite being able to identify at least one of the culprits with a Tesco Clubcard number, Kent Police did not act.


“It makes me mad – they are letting us down,” she said.


A recent inquest into the tragic death in 2018 of Richard Betts heard how his father, in restraining his violent son, had accidentally killed him by squashing. The subsequent inquest heard Mr Betts Snr (also named Richard) waited 49 minutes for Kent Police to respond to his rst call as no one was close enough or free to attend. A pattern of sorts is developing here. Yet, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, in 2018/19 Kent Police was rated ‘good’ in its effectiveness at reducing crime and keeping people safe.


Furthermore, Zoe Billingham, the HM Inspector of Constabulary wrote: “Kent


Help us raise the roof


IN PREVIOUS years, the Holy Cross Parish Church of Bearsted has held an annual craft fayre during December. However, due to Covid-19, we have had to change tack.


Our Raise the Roof fundraising appeal is still going ahead. Our annual craft fayre is continuing this year as a virtual catalogue experience.


Crafts, plants, produce and other goodies will be displayed within our catalogue as photographs with detailed descriptions. All items will be able to buy online, via our email address: hcraisetheroof@gmail.com Our raffle prizes this year are fabulous, themed hampers of quality gifts. The


SimonSays SIMON FINLAY Editor simon.nlay@downsmail.co.uk Twitter @Simonnlay6500


Police communicates really well with the public. The force understands what matters to people. It knows what skills it needs to provide a good service.” There’s more: “The force is good at protecting vulnerable people. It works well with partner organisations to do this. It also uses its protective powers well.”


How hollow that might seem when residents, who cannot get an officer to follow up distressing burglaries or acts of deliberate criminal damage, spot half a dozen police officers armed with speed guns, capturing perpetrators infringing a speed limit by a few miles per hour.


On paper, crime may well be falling, but many people no longer report a shed break-in, theft, criminal damage or antisocial behaviour. They feel there is no point, as nothing will be done. Offences in Kent dropped by 2% last


year, but the number of drug-related crimes, shop thefts and illegal weapon carrying was sharply up, the latter especially so in Maidstone. Modern constabularies nd honest and inventive ways to record data to satisfy whatever whims the latest Home Secretary dreams up for them. Most coppers just want to be out on the beat, arresting and putting away criminals. Working, frontline officers can only go where they are sent. Kent Police’s work in disrupting so- called “county lines” drug-dealing has shown how effective the force can be. There have been a startling seven murders in the town in little over two years, and all swiftly dealt with.


online experience will be live From November 26 to December 5. Using our email,


hcraisetheroof@gmail.com, get in touch for raffle tickets and crafts. If you have any questions, please contact us on 01622 630451. Patricia Sutch, Raise the Roof Committee, Holy Cross Church, Bearsted


Recycling concerns


TONBRIDGE and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) has been undergoing a new regime of waste management. Since late last year they have been struggling to get it right. I have found it necessary to complain


There is little visibility on the streets, though.


And non-police community wardens arguably do more on their own than all the formal policing in villages put together and their presence is reassuring and clearly to be seen. When the fall-out from the


Coronavirus pandemic starts to hit the public purse, most forces can expect budgetary pressures. This Government, which seems increasingly distant from its electorate, found billions to pay for business loans and the furlough scheme at a time of unprecedented peril. Yet it is now obvious it was previously unwilling to properly fund a fundamental necessity in a civilised society – a police service which actually protects and serves.


Kent Police is now selling its headquarters for houses, has shut most of its smaller stations down and shuffles the resources at its disposal in the most efficient way it can. You will hear the same refrain from every chief constable and police commissioner in the land. Instead, what we get are initiatives such as the Maidstone Task Force – a well-meaning collaboration between Kent Police, Maidstone Borough Council, trading standards officials, housing associations and voluntary groups aimed at keeping people safe. The task force aims to target thuggery, knife crime, rogue traders, con artists, y-tippers, burglars and drug dealers in the county town and the wider borough. Does anyone seriously believe that will happen? No one is fooled by such frippery and window-dressing, however well-intentioned.


It could put one in mind of the Bob


Dylan line: “Because the cops don’t need you and, man, they expect the same.” But, in truth, the same could be applied to this increasingly out-of-touch Government.


on several occasions about the waste collection service. The most recent was on September 30 – this was because the binmen constantly leave my and my neighbours’ bins blocking the path after emptying them.


I also raised the point about some of the recyclable waste that should have been taken away the previous day. I had left a video recorder and two large bags containing clothes for collection. I watched the binman put the video recorder into my black bin and then empty it into the refuse truck .The two bags of clothing got left behind. When I queried this with the waste team at TMBC, I was told that the video recorder would be recycled into


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