Conservative Crime Reduction Cut Condemned

Shepway Council's Liberal Democrat group have condemned the decision of the Conservative ruling group to approve a cut of £30,000 from the budget to be spent by the Council this year on fighting crime and anti-social behaviour.

Group Leader Councillor David Dickinson said, "The Conservatives could have avoided making this cut, but have instead decided to spend money on other things. A Council that is listening to the views of local people would have known straight away that dealing with antisocial behaviour is at the top of the Shepway community's priority list."

The council plans to divert resources from Crime Reduction to plan a project to upgrade closed circuit television equipment. The Lib Dem group strongly supports the CCTV upgrade but believes that it is wrong to use people vitally involved in the fight against anti-social behaviour to plan it.

ENDS

For further information, contact David Dickinson 01303 243210 or John Hughes 07989 921353.