The third bidding round of the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund covering England and Wales has seen some £23.5m awarded. After public outcry this year about high-profile acts of violence against women and girls, the Government called for bids to stress safety of women and girls. Typically bids have mixed education in schools to combat unhealthy behaviours, and campaigns focused on student safety; and tech and physical interventions, such as CCTV and lighting, as in previous rounds of the fund.
Sussex PCC (Police & Crime Commissioner) Katy Bourne was awarded nearly £977,000 after two bids:
Sussex-wide (£549,494)
– ‘Healthy Relationships’ sessions for year eight )12-year-old) students at Sussex secondary schools – focusing on harassment, toxic masculinity and misogyny;
– ‘Bystander to upstander’ sessions focusing on supporting attendees to feel more confident in recognising and challenging unacceptable and misogynistic behaviour;
more funding for Street Pastors/Street Angels/beach patrol schemes in Rye, Eastbourne, Worthing, East Grinstead and Billingshurst;
– ‘Make her feel safe’ campaign addressing men’s and boys’ behaviour, aiming to challenge the current narrative and help bring about change;
recruitment of three VAWG [violence against women and girls] Community Navigators for 12 months to support all VAWG campaign activity in Sussex, including supporting and training community safe spaces for the Sussex Safe Spaces App, in development;
– eight re-deployable CCTV units to be used across the county in areas identified of concern.
Also: Hastings, Eastbourne, Angmering and Brighton (£427,288)
Hastings: Alexandra Park – improvements to be made including lighting, CCTV, signage
Eastbourne: Gildredge Park – additional lighting
Angmering: Mayflower Park – additional lighting
Brighton (pictured): War Memorial, Old Steine and Pavilion Gardens – installation of additional lighting and CCTV.
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight has £648,755 of funding. Hampshire PCC Donna Jones said: “Violence against women and girls has been an issue in this country for generations, but recent high profile cases mean it is very much at the front of our minds at present, and rightly so. VAWG offences cause significant harm and distress to victims, their friends and family, witnesses, and wider society. It is crucial that we work together to stop these crimes happening in the first place – through better education and awareness; by challenging misogyny and hate in society; and working to change repeat offenders’ behaviour.
As in Hampshire and Sussex, bids typically were between police force and PCC, and local government. Likewise Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, with Chelmsford City Council, Essex County Council and Essex Police, gained £550,000 of funding to go on Chelmsford. That includes CCTV cameras, lighting, fencing and youth work. Roger Hirst said: “The projects that we can now deliver really will make a difference. They have all been designed to make areas more inviting and will encourage residents to reclaim the public space, giving criminal activity no place to thrive and preventing crime from happening.”
For example, £19,000 will go on wider provision of the Chelmsford SOS bus to every Friday night in the city centre, to aid the vulnerable on a night out.
Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Scott, was awarded £741,548 to cover Ashford, and Rochester and Chatham in Medway. From earlier bidding, the county had £870,000 for Safer Streets projects in Ramsgate, Canterbury and Gillingham.
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland PCC Rupert Matthews bid successfully with police and council for £550,000; to go on 31 new CCTV cameras and improved lighting in parks across the area. Also planned; a ‘Behaviour Change’ campaign across the police force area to tackle underlying attitudes and inequalities that help to foster gender-based violence.
Online tool
Meanwhile there’s a new national police lead, Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, to set the policing strategy for tackling violence against women and girls across England and Wales. The Street Safe online tool, recently launched by the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), enables anyone to anonymously flag public places and mark on a map the areas where they feel unsafe, while remaining anonymous. The tool is being trialled across England and Wales to the end of November. Visit: www.police.uk/streetsafe.
Police are particularly encouraging women and girls to use the platform. Norfolk Chief Constable Paul Sanford for example said: “In Norfolk we are committed to ensuring supporting victims is at the heart of what we do and violence against women and girls is definitely our priority. We want communities to work with us to target the issue. The Street Safe tool is one way we can focus on the areas people feel unsafe in, to help target hotspot areas, for example with extra patrols, and work together with partners to improve wellbeing for communities.”
Round two of the Fund saw 50 projects across England and Wales awarded a total of £18.4m in June. For the full list of round three bids, visit the Home Office website.
Visit https://www.police.uk/pu/notices/streetsafe/street-safe/.
