£1 million Safer Streets funding awarded in Avon and Somerset
Funding to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and Male Violence Against Women and Girls (MVAWG) has been awarded to local authorities across Avon and Somerset.
With support from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), Bristol City Council, BANES Council, North Somerset Council and Somerset Council successfully bid to the Home Office for Safer Street funding. The Home Office will be awarding a total of £1,000,000.00 which will fund a range of crime prevention programmes in partnership with local councils, police and specialist support services.
The funds will cover a range of initiatives across the region
£250,000 has been awarded for work across Avon and Somerset. This will focus on initiatives targeting VAWG. It will cover training and supporting professionals in the night time economy to identify and respond to MVAWG, awareness raising campaigns, and will build a network of community champions who will increase access to support services for survivors and help to challenge and respond to all forms of violence and abuse.
Bristol and Somerset will receive £391,650 to tackle ASB. Interventions include improved lighting and CCTV provision to reduce crime and increase feelings of safety at night, outreach activities to support young people, and family-based mentoring that will work with perpetrators to reflect on their behaviours, direct them into positive activities, and reduce reoffending.
BANES and North Somerset have been awarded £358,350 to reduce and prevent ASB. This funding will support the creation of a Community Safety Hub scheme, provide additional street marshals working with local Police, and provide an increase in CCTV provision.
“I am delighted that local authorities in the area have been successfully awarded this additional Safer Street funding to support interventions tackling ASB and Violence Against Women and Girls.
“My first Police and Crime Plan priority is preventing and fighting crime, so I am very supportive of the preventative interventions outlined in the bids, which include new activity as well as building on existing initiatives. Collaboration and partnership working between our police, local councils, and support specialists is essential to make our public spaces safer for everyone. This is a great example of partnership working between the Home Office, my team, Avon and Somerset police and partners delivering for our communities to make them safer”.
PCC Mark Shelford
Safer Streets is a Home Office fund that was launched in 2020. It supports initiatives that tackle neighbourhood crime such as burglary, robbery, theft from a person and vehicle crime; reduces anti-social behaviour incidents; changes attitudes and behaviours towards Violence Against Women and Girls in public places; and improves the safety of public spaces for all.