Rundown street where 'kids as young as 12 sell drugs' so bad buses had to be diverted away

An anti-social “hotspot” dubbed the “worst road in Medway” is fighting back against a scourge of anti-social behaviour, nuisance bike riders and drugs and drunks on the street.

Luton Road, in Medway, Kent, is one of the most deprived areas in the UK where just recently buses had to be diverted from the road after they came under fire from yobs throwing bricks.

Local residents have complained of “kids selling drugs in the street” in the area and even in one instance a man who walked down the road “completely butt naked” except for a coat.

Parts of the area now set to be covered by a proposed Public Spaces Protection Order due to come into force in October and already speed restrictions have been enforced to stop nuisance motorcyclists.

Luton Road was once an affluent area according to some older residents but in the last 10 years a woman’s body has been found beneath floorboards and a local chip shop owner was stabbed in a robbery.

According to KentLive there were 212 crimes committed in January in the ward covering the road, Luton and Wayfield, a slight decrease from the previous month.

A total of 94 crimes were related to violence and sexual offences, 26 crimes connected to anti-social behaviour, another 26 criminal damage and arson and 17 shoplifting offences.

There were 93 crimes committed near Luton Road, out of which 21 crimes were reported on that street including 15 shoplifting cases. A national survey of 100,000 people released in February on the ILiveHere’s website ranked the town as the 37th worst in England.

Sammy, an artist at L.A. Tattoo and Piercing Parlour, joked some people called it the “worst road in Medway” but the studio had been there since 2016.

She said: “All the older people that I tattoo say this used to be one of the best areas in Medway but obviously now it’s not that good.

“We are open late on a Thursday night, and you see the down and outs and the drunks and everything. We are here six days a week, so we see it first-hand.

“We hear about it all the time and everything that’s going in the area and up the road, and there’s always police and everything but we don’t really see it at our end.

“We know about the fights and anti-social behaviour, and we heard about the bricks on the buses, which we diverted away from this road for a couple of days or so.

“It’s hard to tell potential clients where we are, you know Luton Road. A lot of businesses are shutting down, I think it’s the area and everyone is moving away.”

Chelsea Cunningham, from The Bagel Hub, told KentLive: “There’s a lot of young children selling drugs in the street. That’s ridiculous.

“But recently, it’s gotten really bad, even down to last night, we had somebody walking down here with a coat, and no trousers and no pants on. He was just completely butt naked and had a coat on. It’s crazy.

“But saying that, the people are still lovely, people are so friendly. It’s just the younger generation. It’s just the fact that nobody cares what their kids are doing. They don’t care. They’re out there and their parents are watching them. That’s the worst thing about it.

“They are probably aged 12 and upward. It’s getting younger and younger. It’s disgusting.”

Labour Cllr Tristan Osborne is the spokesperson for Community Safey of the local council. He said it was one of the “hotspots” in Kent and one that is relatively deprived.

He said: “It has a number of social issues, they are documented concerns around anti-social behaviour in this location. The police are responding and we’ve had an increase in beat officers, we are currently consulting on a PSPO, which is a Public Space Protection Order, which will be taking place in some of the parks and will be rolled in October.”

Cllr Osborne said the proposed PSPO would give police additional powers to confiscate nuisance bikes and other off-road vehicles. He added that Section 59s, given when vehicles are used in manner causing alarm, distress or annoyance, have also been issued by police.

He said: “This issue has been occurring under parties of both colours for 20 to 30 years, it’s been a socially deprived area for a long period of time.

“There is going to be a renewed effort to try and challenge these problems. I can tell you now, it is absolutely a focus for us to try and reduce anti-social behaviour and crime in some of these urban areas of Medway.”

Cllr Osborne said improvements had been made to local parks working with the community and speed restrictions had been put in place.

Community activist Stephen Perez, from social enterprise group in the area Arches Local, said his group was a resident led initiative helping to improve parks, plant trees, add art murals and running after school and holiday clubs.

He said: “The challenges in the area are not hard to find, I would say they are challenges that you would find in most areas.

“Like any sort of urban area in the South East on the peripheries of London it’s going to be complex in its nature.

“Ultimately, it’s not rocket science, the more stuff that you do and the more that you involve people that actually live there in doing it, then they are going to take pride in that.

“This is related to anything that we are doing, whether it’s related to green spaces or build environment.

“Money isn’t just the answer, actually the approach is probably the most important thing, an approach that adopts place and the people within that place being the focus of how that money is invested or spent.”

Kent Police’s Medway Community Safety Unit Insp Joel Mitchell said: “Officers regularly patrol the area in both plain clothes and uniform. We remain dedicated to preventing crime and want residents to feel safe within their communities.

“We carry out regular proactive operations to ensure offenders are arrested and brought to justice and also work closely with partner agencies to address issues as and when they arise.”