Council leaders have backed a new Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy to help make Tendring an even safer place for residents, businesses and visitors.

Tendring District Council’s (TDC) Cabinet welcomed the strategy for 2025-2028 at its meeting on Friday, 11 April.

The strategy, which has been put together in collaboration with the Tendring Community Safety Partnership (CSP), outlines a framework for reducing crime and disorder over the next three years, formalising the collaborative efforts between the CSP and the council’s Community Safety Team.

The key themes and priorities include addressing the underlying factors contributing to anti-social behaviour, focusing on violence against women and girls and domestic abuse, combating gang-related activities and county lines operations and responding to issues such as shoplifting, vehicle crime, arson, and criminal damage.

The strategy will be recommended to full council for adoption as part of TDC’s Policy Framework.

Councillor Peter Kotz, TDC Cabinet Member for Assets and Community Safety and Chairman of the Tendring Community Safety and Health and Wellbeing Board, welcomed the Cabinet’s support for the strategy.

“Through working together, TDC and the CSP have achieved many successes in reducing crime, disorder and ASB, protecting those who are vulnerable and making Tendring safe and secure for residents, businesses and visitors,” he said,

“We are proud of these achievements but know that more needs to be done to make Tendring safer.

“We recognise that the challenges facing our children, young adults and families have evolved and continue to do so.

“For example, criminal gangs are targeting children to move drugs in and out of towns and other areas, including in Tendring.

“This is a national issue, but we need to be aware of criminal gangs, and to be able to spot the signs that our children may be being targeted.

“Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for the Central Government and it is also forefront of the CSP’s agenda.

“Our ambition is to increase support for victims and survivors, increase the number of perpetrators brought to justice and reduce the prevalence of violence against women and girls.

“We are committed to working with our partners to improve quality of life for our residents, including by tackling crime and disorder and ASB in Tendring and creating a safe environment where people and communities can flourish.”

The council’s Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard earlier this year that overall crime in the district was down 2.9% between October 2023 and September last year, while anti-social behaviour was down 5.1%.