CCTV will be put up in a park after a petition gained traction, and anti-social behaviour such as drug use, vandalism and attacks on children left some feeling unsafe.

Medway Council has revealed it will install two rapid deployment cameras in Rainham Recreation Ground for 12 weeks to monitor its effect on crime rates.

After this, a review will take place to decide whether the CCTV has assisted in detecting crime and reducing anti-social behaviour enough to justify a permanent installation.

Last year, a petition to reinstall CCTV in the park – headed by the vicar of nearby St Margaret's Church, Rev Nathan Ward – was rejected by the council due to a lack of resources to fund the security measure.

In the past, there had been a permanent CCTV camera in the park, but it was taken down for financial reasons.

Earlier this year, Giovanna Zeuli started another petition to reinstate cameras, and the council has now responded to that petition, saying it has reviewed the reports and concerns raised by the public this year and has made the decision to put in the cameras on a temporary basis.

Last month, concerns about anti-social behaviour were raised after a boy was assaulted by two other children at the recreation ground. The boy's mum said at the time: "We would never ever go back to that park. I'd already heard a lot about it, and heard several incidents before this.

"I don't know if I want to live here anymore. I've lived in Rainham all my life, but it's not nice that this can happen 10 minutes away from our house. It's so unlike Rainham. I'm sad my child can't go to the park and just be safe."

She also said that she believed CCTV would "definitely help" to make the park safer. She added: "If people knew they could get caught they wouldn't do it. It wouldn't prevent these issues completely, of course, but if children knew they could be caught, or if the police were about, it can only be a good thing."

Another mum, who was with the boy at the time of the attack, said: "This is somewhere we've been going to for years, and it's our closest park. We went there regularly throughout lockdown because it was a great place for our kids to play and ride their bikes, but now I would rather go somewhere further away.

"There are e-scooters in the park a lot too, and that feels unsafe to me. With other stories that I've heard of assaults and verbal harassment, I think security measures would help. I always thought Rainham was a safe community to bring up my family in, but now I'm not sure."

Another mum said that her son used to visit the park every Saturday morning but became too scared after he saw another child being attacked. Her children had also found nitrous oxide cannisters on the ground, and her son was scared and asked to leave after noticing people in the park's hut.

Rainham Recreation Ground Community Group, also known as the Friends of Rainham Recreation Ground, is a team of volunteers dedicated to Rainham's green spaces.

Last month, member Stuart Bourne said that the group's goal was to try to change the park's bad reputation through highlighting the positive side of it. He said: "Although this worked to a degree, it wasn't enough. As we spoke to more and more people, we knew just how unsafe they felt, especially walking the park at night.

"That is why we created a petition last year, that called on Medway Council to install CCTV in the park, to discourage and catch those causing the problem.

"A year later, we are still seeing the same anti-social behaviour. The broken beer bottles, the vandalism, the graffiti and the fights. We contact Kent Police but they have very limited resources due to being underfunded.

"So in the end we do our best to clear up the mess afterwards, but the root causes are still being ignored."

In response to the news that the CCTV would be installed, the group said in a statement: "We are obviously incredibly delighted that after being ignored and dismissed by the local councillors and council officers for years, after a petition last year of 416 signatures, after so many complaints and reports in the newspaper, Medway Council have finally listened.

"We want to give a big thank you to Giovanna Zeuli, a local resident whose recent petition seems to have been the straw that finally broke the council’s back.

"That being said, these are only temporary cameras and it is suspiciously close to the local elections in six months. So we will continue to maintain the pressure on the council to keep them permanent and make our park safe."

Rainham North councillor Martin Potter (Conservative) said: “We continue to work very closely with both Kent Police and the council's Youth Services who do an excellent job tackling local issues, including through proactive engagement with the young people at the Rec with escalated services at different times to support the work in Rainham.

"The council has also provided weekly free football sessions throughout the summer at the Rainham Rec, which I have had the pleasure of personally attending. I have also attended a number of youth sessions and spoken with some of the young people, which has always been very insightful.

"Young people in the Rec were also involved in a project this summer, which we led on as ward councillors, to paint a mural on the changing room pavilion in celebrating our late Queen's Jubilee. A key focus for us with the project was engaging local schools to help design the mural, and we were able to get some of the young people in the park involved with the painting and the community celebration for the mural back in June.

"Despite some concerns and fears otherwise, the mural has remained respected and I think there is certainly a lesson in the engagement approach we took, and indeed the wider work of our youth service and police who through their work have helped minimise issues.

"The community safety response has always been that due to the low crime level and type of issues in the Rainham Rec, the police patrols and youth engagement on the ground approach was best and there wasn't the evidence base for surveillance as per the Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s Code of practice.

"We have challenged this on multiple occasions as a camera would provide reassurance as a minimum if nothing else. Also, Rainham has a surveillance all around the High Street and Precinct in any case, albeit this is well evidenced in these locations, but I can't see anyone complaining about a camera as CCTV is largely accepted in public places.

"The use of the rapid response camera gives the community safety team the opportunity to assess its effectiveness.”