Are Labour's 'zero-tolerance crime zones' enough to win over voters battling anti-social behaviour?

Labour has announced plans for 'zero-tolerance' zones in town centres, in a bid to crack down on antisocial behaviour. Correspondent Stacey Foster speaks to people in one of Labour's key target seats in the Rother Valley in South Yorkshire affected by crime in the area on what they want to see

We met 24-year-old Ebony Deo, manager of the Spar convenience store, in the South Yorkshire town of Maltby.

She is on the front line of anti-social behaviour and crime. She shows me her phone camera-reel which is full of CCTV footage and still images of incidents at her shop, where staff are regularly threatened and products are stolen to sell on.

She has an album of “Shoplifters” dedicated to the cause, so if a known offender comes in, she can ask them to leave the shop.

Back in January, a woman was attacked outside Ebony’s store as she withdrew cash from the machine. She was beaten with a bat.

Police said two people were arrested and released on bail pending further investigation. No charges have been made.

Ebony says she has stopped reporting a lot of the incidents to the police because it takes so long and rarely leads to any convictions.

Ebony has never voted before. She says her family background is voting for a party of business.

Like most people, she is worried about the rising costs of living but says she’s interested to see what the main parties have to say on crime and antisocial behaviour.

After we left Ebony, we headed to a small local florist shop less than a mile away.

It seemed quite unusual for the shadow home secretary to be launching Labour’s plan to reduce theft and antisocial behaviour there. But, that is where Yvette Cooper started her campaigning on the issue.

Labour’s £400million plan on crime is to recruit 13,000 neighbourhood officers, made up of 6,000 police officers, 3000 PCSOs and 4000 special constables to crackdown on antisocial behaviour.

The vision is to have local high-street policing plans, where local businesses and residents can input into how areas are policed and new zero tolerance zones to clamp down on street drinking.

Labour say this will be paid for by efficiency savings in police procurement of vehicles, IT and kit.

Labour says snatch thefts of mobile phones have almost doubled, from 30,000 to 58,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

But, back in 2009, when Labour was in government, the figure was 97,000.

It is true that total thefts against the person, as it is logged by the ONS on the National Crime Survey, have soared from 206,000 to 321,000 with an increase of 56% (to 321,000 incidents) compared with the year ending December 2022 (206,000 incidents).

The small former mining town of Maltby in South Yorkshire has issues with anti-social behaviour and theft, but perhaps what’s more significant for the Labour Party is that the parliamentary seat of Rother Valley is a must-win at this election.

This seat has always been a Labour seat, until 2019, when it elected a Tory MP for the first time.

We met residents Mickey and Denise, who have formed a campaign group called Big Power for Little London, a nickname they have for their estate.

They have held protest events and they are urging politicians to listen. They say there is a link between the quality of the housing they have and levels of anti-social behaviour.

We chatted next to a building they called “The Derelicts”, which is due to be redeveloped in the second half of 2024 - but the locals are not hopeful.

Mickey and Denise told me that Rishi Sunak visited the town in March, but they weren’t allowed into the hotel where the prime minister held a question and answer session with local people.

Although Maltby elected a Tory MP in the 2019 election, it is a Labour heartland.

We spoke to many past Labour voters. Not all of them had made their mind up about where to place their vote on July 4, but many told us that it is time for a change.

Ebony has never voted before. She told me she has seen a lot of material from Labour on her social media channels, but wants to find out more before potentially casting her first ever vote.

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