Shop scheme 'makes me feel safe and in touch'

Publican Iris Smith helps run G Safe in Gravesend

Users of a scheme to tackle shop theft, violence and antisocial behaviour in a Kent town say it helps them "feel safe".

Gravesend Safe and Free Environment (G Safe) is made up of shop owners, volunteers and residents who are determined to stop their town centre being targeted by prospective thieves.

The scheme, which works closely with Kent Police, uses a shop radio system and an app to keep tabs on the identity and movements of potential offenders.

Traci Savill, who works at the Toxic Angel boutique in the Heritage Quarter, said: "The shop radio system makes me feel safe and in touch.”

Organisers of the scheme say they have trained up 50 staff in more than 20 shops to provide a "safe space to someone in need of assistance".

Between April 2023-24, there were 1,352 incidents in Gravesend at a total cost of £103,000, according to G Safe.

Goods recovered were valued at £61,000.

Sophie Jordan, G Safe's co-ordinator, told Local Democracy Reporting Service “this is truly just the tip of the iceberg".

She says: “Shops have cut back on floor staff, so there is less of a deterrent."

Safia Khalid, owner of Safia’s Beauty Bar for the past 12 years, says groups gathering outside the former Debenhams store opposite her shop have been “bad for business”.

She said: "They just spend their days begging, drinking, littering and fighting.

"They get away with it because they know nothing will happen to them.”

Safia Khalid said there was regular antisocial behaviour outside her beauty parlour

Iris Smith, G Safe chairperson and local publican, says she has stopped referring to retail theft as shoplifting.

She said: “It’s theft, pure and simple.

"Calling it shoplifting almost trivialises it and the harm that it can do.

“It is not just the financial losses suffered, it is also the violence and verbal abuse that often goes with it.”