Furfield Park open space

Furfield Park open space, off Brishing Lane, provides 15 acres of land for use by the public. This area is sensitively managed to maintain its rural feel. The site includes an area of ancient woodland and managed rewilding while still allowing public access and enjoyment. Two wildflower meadows were added more recently.

Anti-social behaviour

As many of you know, there has been an increasing problem with anti-social behaviour in the Furfield Park public open space. As well as motorbikes racing around creating a safety hazard and noise nuisance, fires have been lit and a newly installed gate was vandalised. We are as frustrated as you about this and have been doing all we possibly can to put a stop to these incidents. We attended a meeting with the Police in May along with the KCC Warden and a representative from the MBC Community Safety Team and were reassured to hear that both the Police and MBC had issued quite a number of Community Protection Warnings (CPWs). CPWs apply to the bike as well as the rider so anyone in a household going out on that bike will be bound by the warning.

It’s vital you keep reporting all incidents via 101, as they happen, give as much detail as you can when describing the riders and bikes and potentially where the bikes are housed. You can also log anti-social behaviour on the MBC website https://self.maidstone.gov.uk/service/report_anti_social_behaviour If you manage to get any clear photographs of offenders and bikes (without putting yourself at risk) please send these to the parish clerk [email protected] and we will forward to the Police and MBC.

If required, CPWs can be followed up using the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 which potentially will lead to court action.

At our meeting we also discussed other measures BMAT could take including additional gates and fencing and this work has now been completed. Some of the land the bikes are using is owned by a private landowner and we have asked for their support in keeping the boundary as secure as possible. We are also investigating the installation of ‘game’ cameras to allow us to obtain evidence that would stand up in court.

The below map shows the extent of the Furfield Park public open space. The area to the south of this, down to the stream is owned by the private landowner, not BMAT and is not open to the public although we appreciate this is where a lot of the motorbike activity seems to be happening.

We are reassured to hear from residents that since our meeting with the Police and the subsequent installation of additional gates and fencing, the motorbike problems seem to have stopped. We hope this continues but please get in touch if there are any further problems.