Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry has secured £550k in Home Office funding to make women and girls feel safer on the streets of Ashfield.
Commissioner Henry, who is delivering on her promise to secure Nottinghamshire’s fair share of central funding, received the maximum grant available in the third round of the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund.
The cash will help increase feelings of safety among women and girls.
It will fund new CCTV cameras, extra ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) technology to identify offenders, better street lighting and environmental improvement work as well as additional enforcement and high-visibility policing patrols in crime hotspots.
The Commissioner has been working closely with Nottinghamshire Police and partners to prioritise women’s safety in Ashfield, listening carefully to the views of local people and focus groups on what makes women feel safe.
Commissioner Henry said: “As Police and Crime Commissioner, I continue to work hard to ensure everyone in Ashfield feels safe. To this end, I have been leading this bid including close engagement with both Police and partners in Ashfield to maximise Nottinghamshire’s share of this vital cash and exhaust every opportunity to make women and girls safer and in the places they live or work.
“I am delighted the full £550k has been awarded, confirming we are right on the money when it comes to protecting our people and preventing crime. Overall, I have fought and secured £1.1 million from this funding round alone to transform safety for women and girls in Nottinghamshire.
“As Commissioner, I want to make the changes that matter to everyone – not just to me. This is why I consulted extensively to find out why and where people feel vulnerable and unsafe – and ultimately give our communities what they want and need.
“I am determined to make Nottinghamshire a safe place for women and girls and give them the confidence to enjoy our glorious county without fear.”
The Safer Streets project will deliver more fixed and re-deployable CCTV cameras in locations where fear of crime is highest and fund environmental improvement works including enhanced street lighting.
It will also fund improvement work to gate off the alleyway at Bentick and Welbeck Street and the development of a Safe Space Accreditation scheme for local businesses, supporting them with 4G or WIFI CCTV and training staff to help them support women who seek temporary refuge when they are feeling vulnerable
Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield, said: “This is fantastic news and the result of hard work from Commissioner Henry supported by myself in lobbying the Home Secretary. I will continue to push force extra resources to make our area safer and this is being made easier by having a PCC that puts Ashfield front and centre.”
Nationally, the Government is allocating a further £25 million to local projects through the Safer Streets Fund aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces for all with a particular focus on tackling violence against women and girls.
Crimes which take place in public places such as sexual harassment disproportionately affect women, which is why this latest investment largely focus on making spaces safer for women and girls.
Since its inception, the Government has committed £70 million to the Safer Streets Fund to support local areas across England and Wales to introduce initiatives aimed at stopping offences happening in the first place.
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Posted on Monday 4th October 2021