A meeting for Ramsgate businesses will be held on Wednesday (May 29) to discuss the continuing problem of vandalism and violence in the town late at night.
County councillor Karen Constantine has arranged for the meeting to be attended by Thanet Chief Inspector Lara Connor, off Kent Police. It will be held ay Zest Café in Queen Street from 6pm-7pm.
The meeting follows the stabbing of a man in neck during an incident in Harbour Street earlier this month.
Meetings held in 2017 to discuss similar issues resulted in action including 48 hour dispersal orders and patrols targeting ‘hotspots.’
Cllr Constantine, who also sits on the district council, said: “We must take whatever steps are necessary to support our local businesses, our local community and to ensure are streets are safe and to safeguard Ramsgate’s reputation.
“The nighttime economy needs to be dealt with. A balance must be struck between licensed premises and the needs of the wider community.”
Ward councillors Raushan Ara and Peter Campbell have called for more police coverage between Thursday to Saturday night.
In a statement they added: “There needs to be an action plan for the town centre, especially Harbour Street as the gate of the town, and this plan needs to be supported by police, businesses and the various agencies including Thanet District Council.”
Every town has a level of crime and violence. Young people have always been out and so have the older generation. Alcohol is an addiction so is drug abuse both mixed are lethal cocktails. It’s controlling the abuse that many cannot do and get out of their heads and resort to stabbings or anything else violent. Comes with the culture of Ramsgate sea front. Comes with the drink and drug culture. Crime of any violent nature needs to stop but what you going to do. Ban alcohol ban drugs and no one allowed out… Curfew… Blame the pubs for cheap alcohol
What cheap alcohol…it costs a fortune to drink out these days. the trouble is that many youngsters drink in excess BEFORE they go out . Put a high minimum price per unit in supermarkets and the problem will diminish
Too many premises selling cheap drinks and not policing their own pubs. It’s all about profits for the big bosses of those cheap chains and individual premises who have big influence on the licensing department of TDC to keep it happening whilst blaming everything non related to their premises. The police should object strongly to these sort of premises in Thanet to help keep damage and dangers down at night time. It is no good ignoring the cause and just picking up the pieces, as it will just continue. Some strong decisions need to be made for the safety of all residents and businesses in those areas.
I think the pubs that are open till the early hours of the morning need to show more responsibility, both by restricting sales to obviously drunk customers and by paying for a town centre wide security presence in the late evening/ night.
Weakness shown by the courts to give harder longer sentence’s to yobs / vandals. Police trying to be here there and everywhere. ( Do we still have Special Constables ) They have the same powers of regular police officers and do a very worth while job. Also the licensing committee have a lot to answer allowing these places to stay open to the early hours on cheap booze. The only police we see are those dashing past on twos and blues calls.
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More CCTV and brighter street lighting wouldn’t go a miss and as Raushan said more police patrols at the weekends.
I would love to attend this meeting and others but 6pm just doesn’t cut it if you commute. It is too early. Why can we not have community meetings that start at 7.30pm?
Perhaps if we had full employment in Thanet, not Zero hour contracts, these teenagers wouldn’t have the energy to fight in the streets, also a few extra Police walking around the Town at night, wouldn’t go amiss.
Tripod, who said it’s teenagers?
As someone who has to work in the immediate area concerned, having to dodge our way through drunk and abusive pub goers, I have witnessed extreme violence from our offices. Only a few weeks ago on the last bank holiday, at 0400 Monday morning, a brutal fight, with three men looking for violence even resorting to punching women and kicking and stamping on a man who had fallen over. Bouncers from a club a few doors down didn’t get involved and even though police were called by our office, no police presence for an hour by which time all involved had disappeared. Alcohol licences need to be curtailed for these premises by the harbour who’s serve drinks until 3 or 4 in the morning with no regard for the consequences. However this will never happen as they have too much influence.
Yeah cause the businesses around here know how to sort it??? How about you leave the police in the town half of them dont do anything but drive around all day there is enough officers.call and give regular meetings for parents so can talk about half the little shits they bringing up and letting loose on our town they are horrid swearing and fighting in front of little kids who will grow to think thats normal. Soon you’ll be arresting alot of adults for giving these shits a slap or worse. Cant even sit on a bus without one being loud and disrespectful whats worse are the adults that do it clearly making drug deals over the phone without a care look what you let our town become its ugly looking the towm is a ghost town full of alcoholic bums meeting up sitting on benches all day im not talking about the homeless before you start im talking scumbags that would sell a kid for a rock no a can yhats how bad they are. Tiwn has so much potential and we do fuck all with it no investment new stores restaurant’s fun for kids clean beaches ckean streets alleyways i could make this town look worse with all the shit i see dumped and the council still sent those robbing fucks to fine people £80 for a cigarette butt any little littering when yes fair enough we want clean streets we should all do more but robbing people off money they cant afford for something so small when the council and government shit on us daily is robbery we all know they have target to reach they fine parents for their kids littering when the parents never saw it. Corrupt town country world. Kill me now.
In order to deal with the anti social behaviour within the district a lot of varying factors would need to be considered to deal with the problem accordingly. Not only are children going up in poverty the lack of education with schools is alarming. The majority of schools within Thanet have now become academy’s, these academies are run by local sponsors, businesses, faith groups amongst other trust members who are responsible for the upkeep and performance of their schools. Whilst most of the trust are honest and want to improve schools, some are lining their own pockets with the money allocated to them by the government which then leaves the schools lacking in resources, unsafe buildings and staff. On top of these problems a lot of children are suffering abuse and neglect so become unruly teenagers with no respect for anything or anyone or themselves even. The lack of funding towards Kent police is not only putting a strain on local businesses leaving owners and staff unable to deal with vandalism and violent outbursts but also the public when teenagers play up in the streets and when addicts drink and take drugs and then play up worse than the teenagers. The local council simply do not care for working class families that might be struggling and are only interested in lining their own pockets. The lack of any help with mental ill health is at an all time high as well as services being unavailable when needed. So many different authorities are failing people due to lack of resources and funding from the government which is leading to the concerning rate of deviation from ‘social norms’. Personally I feel that it has gone on too long for ‘just’ business owners and local residents to sort out. The root cause needs to be established in order to manage the problems within particular areas. Doesn’t help that the tory government have no interest in dealing with areas struggling with poverty or working class people that may need intervention but are being denied basic healthcare and services.
Thanet Resident encapsulates it perfectly. Huge cuts in police numbers and provision of social care and support for vulnerable people over the last years have not helped either. Anyway – it makes a change from people from overseas being to blame for most things…..until next week I guess.
It is a misconception to blame pubs for selling cheap alcohol. That is far more readily available in supermarkets and off licences to be drunk any time and any place by abusers. Not sure all of even the majority of anti-social behaviour around the town is caused by booze anyway.