ASB and Criminal Damage

Hello all

This is a message for parents/guardians but also for the youths in Lydd.

There has been a spike of anti-social behaviour (ASB) in Lydd and unfortunately some of the ASB incidents are linked to Criminal Damage which are currently under investigation.

All of these ASB and Criminal damage incidents involve youths.

Coronation Square has had an incident of a car windscreen being damaged when a stone was deliberately thrown at it, there is CCTV and I've been making some enquiries which have led to some names.

Staying with the square. please can you ask your children not to play football there and go onto The Rype as the football appears to be being used deliberately to hit vehicles and property windows.

Yesterday evening (20the March) a static caravan that was on private property was deliberately set alight and totally destroyed, this was off of Dennes Lane, names have been given and is currently under investigation.

There have been a couple of incidents along Church Road (off of New Street) whereby front doors are being ‘booted’ and on one occasion a red substance was thrown over the property.

I personally caught a youth ‘red handed’ throwing stones at a property near to Mill Road on Wednesday afternoon, this had been going on for some time with the same property being targeted, the young person will be dealt with in due course.

I know that there is ASB occurring in other areas but as I said, Lydd has seen a spike and it won't be tolerated as although it might seem fun to those doing it, the effects on the victims who are quite often vulnerable can be overwhelming so parents/guardians, you have a responsibility to know where your kids are going and although you can't monitor them whilst they're out of your sight just be aware that they might be getting up to no good so please have a chat with them and remind them about how to behave in public.

I do appreciate that the majority of youngsters are well behaved and this is a small minority causing the issues.

The excuse that ‘there’s nothing for the kids to do' isn't acceptable as far as I'm concerned especially when it comes to making other people's lives a misery and damaging other people's property just because there's ‘nothing else to do’.

As I said, enquiries are still ongoing and there is lots of CCTV about so don't be surprised when I catch up with those that are involved.

Thank you

Steve

13183@kent.police.uk