Community leaders, council officers and police chiefs are to conduct a walkabout of part of the city centre in the next two weeks to try to help crack crimes in the area.

Members of the City Centre Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) will be carrying out the crime survey in a current priority area of the city which includes St Faith's Lane, Recorder Road, Maidstone Road and Rose Lane.

The group, which will be made up of police officers, police community support officers, council officers, including an architect and neighbourhood manager, will be looking to see what the problems are and how they can be solved.

Julian Foster, chairman of the city centre's Safer Neighbourhood Action Panel (SNAP) said: 'It will be done in the next fortnight.

'We will look at things like where litter accumulates and how it's being caused – for example, if bins are being pushed over it means people are doing it and it is not just an environmental matter.

'We will be looking where there's graffiti, if there's detritus from drug dealing or taking, if there are bottles and so on.'

Mr Foster said an architect from the city council would be accompanying the group to see if there were any parts of the area where crime could be 'designed out' by making areas like alleyways more open and inviting and less attractive for criminals.

He said: 'We're just looking around to see if there are places which would attract crime because of the way they are built and if there's any way they can be modified or changed to at least try to design it out rather than wait until crime occurs.'

Mr Foster said the survey would not be city wide, just in the priority areas currently being looked at by the city's Safer Neighbourhood Team.

The team's three current priorities include combating drugs crime, criminal damage and transport issues in Rose Lane, Maidstone Road and Crown Road/

They are also looking to crackdown on anti-social behaviour caused by revellers in Cathedral Street and St Faiths Lane and are continuing to crackdown on graffiti in the city centre.

To contact your SNT call 0845 456 4567.

Have you got a crime story? Call reporter Peter Walsh on 01603 772436 or email peter.walsh@archant.co.uk