Councillors have been asked to think about their social media posts in a bid to fix the perception of a town.

The number of crimes reported in Maidstone has dropped by nearly 2,000 in the last five years.

And while council bosses are pleased to see the progress, they now want to tackle its reputation online.

Martyn Jeynes, the communities and strategic partnerships manager for Maidstone Borough Council, gave his annual report on the Safer Maidstone Partnership (SMP) initiative at the crime and disorder committee last week.

Since its peak in 2019, the number of recorded crimes in the borough had dropped from 17,260 to 15,222 last year - a fall of 11.8%.

Maidstone was ranked third highest across Kent, behind Medway and Thanet, for the overall number of crimes.

But when population size is taken into account and crime is recorded on a per capita basis, Maidstone was ranked the 8th safest out of 13 districts with 86.6 crimes per thousand population last year. The worst-placed was Thanet on 113.2.

The lowest crime-hit district was Sevenoaks with 63.4 per thousand.

Violent crime and criminal damage had shown sharp declines, although there had been an increase in theft and burglary, which Mr Jeynes suggested could be linked to the cost of living crisis and people struggling to make ends meet.

Shoplifting in the High Street had increased by 15% from 296 incidents in 2022 to 339 in 2023.

Cllr Paul Harper (Fant and Oakwood Independents) suggested the public had the perception that crime was worse than it was because much occurs in the town centre where it is witnessed by a lot of people.

He said: “They tend to assume it’s the same all over.”

In fact, 22% of all crime occurs in the town centre.

One of the locations identified as an area of concern in 2022 was Brenchley Gardens, where it was said the police were called daily.

But the transformation of the disused toilet block into a Community Safety Hub, providing a base for the police, for One Maidstone Ambassadors, and for Community Protection Officers - along with the partnership working to provide more public events there - had “completely transformed the area” as well as improving the aesthetics of the park.

Mr Jeynes said: “I’m hoping we will start to see a shift in how people see (the town).”

He urged councillors to be careful on their own social media posts so that they did not inadvertently fuel a negative impression of Maidstone by talking down the town instead of talking it up.

He said: “We know from the broken window theory that if someone perceives something to be in a detrimental position, it will quickly attract more (bad behaviour).

“We monitor the social media platforms around Maidstone, like Maidstone Matters, and see the comments that follow stories of bad news, or horrifying or disgusting behaviour.

“What we have tried to do through mechanisms like My Community Voice (a police-run social media service) is to improve public perception by providing the public with the truth about what is happening.

“Unfortunately, there is always a lot of traction around negativity.

“We are biologically designed to hunt fear. That’s how we stay alive as long as we do as a species.”

“As a result, in a country like ours at the moment, in this particular time, we do face a bit of a fear epidemic and we struggle to sell positive stories.”

His fears were backed up by the views of people visiting Brenchley Gardens this week.

Jasmine and Aaron, both aged 17, said they've both seen posts criticising the town.

Jasmine said: “There’s a lot of TikToks of people talking to others about Maidstone, asking what they think about it. A lot of them say it is rubbish.

“There isn’t very good media surrounding it.”

“I’ve lived here my whole life and I don’t see crime happening but I always hear about it.

“Now that they close the gates in here (Brenchley Gardens), you don’t see people wandering around when they are drunk after a night out.

“I think there’s a lot more cameras and police patrolling around here now, so it isn’t as bad.”

Aaron said: “The biggest one is the football - you see it a lot on Instagram.

“Football fans are always causing trouble in town. I’d see maybe a few arguments and a fight, but that’s about it.

“I would avoid the park but it is a lot better than it used to be.

“Around here and the top of town is probably the worst place to be, especially at night time.”

Aga and Ben Kalicka were also in Brenchley Gardens, with their son Elliot. They were very aware of the crime in the town.

Aga said: “It feels like it is still the same. You constantly hear stories.

“The other day I heard one about pushbikes being stolen from children.”

“We see it all the time. Even going shopping people are constantly stealing stuff. I used to feel really safe, but now I don’t.

“I think it is good that people post online - so the council can actually understand what is happening. Then they have to respond to it.”

Ben said: “I’d imagine it will be a case of crimes aren’t being reported so much. You can call the police and they won’t do anything, or say they are building a case.

“It’s not really responsive enough. If they could stop people drinking beer and loitering here, that would help.”

Mr Jeynes said he wasn’t expecting to see a “seismic shift” in the way people perceived the town, but he had seen small changes happening.”

He said: “What I see when there are negative stories about incidents in our town centre is that all the comments such as ‘It’s becoming like London’ or ‘This place has gone to the dogs,’ etc are now followed by comments such as ‘But it like that everywhere and ‘Actually, I’ve just moved down from London and here is a lot nicer.’”

He added: “We did a lot of survey work in Parkwood and Shepway when we had the task force based there and we spoke to a lot of residents that had moved down from London and they regarded Shepway as Eden in comparison to where they had come from.”

He said: “Our task force is the envy of the county and has set a standard to which councils across the country are aspiring to reach.”

For the most part, the councillors said that they recognised there had been an improvement.

Committee chairman Claudine Russell (Con) said of the new Neighbourhood Policing Model: “At first we missed the PCSOs whom we loved, but I do think that having warranted officers out in the wards has made a real difference.”

Cllr Gary Cook (Con) also praised having constables back on the streets and welcomed the rejuvenation of the police cadet force and the provision of the 3-2-6 youth hub in The Mall, which he said had been “incredibly successful.”