Safer Streets Round Four successful bid  

An application for Safer Streets Round 4 funding from the Home Office was submitted by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner on behalf of partners in May 2022. This application retained a focus on tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and increasing feelings of safety, but also included interventions to tackle specific types of ASB and potential County Lines activity in targeted locations. Notification was received from the Home Office in July that this application had been successful in full. The funding appeared from 1^st September 2022 and is to be spent over two financial years 22/23 and April to September 2023. This round of funding included a match funding requirement of a least 50% from partners.

The locations included in the application are:

·  Eagle Recreation Ground, Leamington Spa

·  Stubbs Pool & the Dingle, Nuneaton

· St Andrews Church, Rugby

· Recreation Ground and Railway Station, Stratford upon Avon.

Environmental interventions to be funded include new CCTV cameras, lighting improvements including new lamp columns and upgrades to LED lighting, the removal/management of vegetation,  installation of physical barriers as appropriate to the location and additional landscaping. Partners will work with communities to identify and deliver solutions for a sustainable future.

The application included funding for a Safer Streets Officer to coordinate the project. Interventions at locations have been agreed with the Home Office as part of the bid. Unfortunately there is no other monies available to target other areas.

Current situation as of 1^st Jan 2023

The Safer Streets Officer is in post and working with partners. Environmental Visual Audits have been carried out at the locations and a program of works agreed. Quotes have been obtained from contractors and orders placed. In Nuneaton work has already commenced with the conversion of lanterns from sodium to more efficient LED lighting along some footpaths. In the new year further work will take place in Nuneaton and Rugby with some works to be completed by 31^st March 2023. In Leamington Planning permission has been granted for cctv columns and orders placed. There will be further works on Green spaces and foliage management in the new year, which will include the design of a wildlife pond. In Stratford Planning permission is at consultation stage for cctv columns at the train station and recreation ground.  

Information from the national StreetSafe reporting portal was incorporated into the development of the Safer Streets project. StreetSafe enables members of the public to anonymously drop a pin onto a map and describe factors that caused them concern, including behavioural or environmental reasons why they felt unsafe. You can report concerns on StreetSafe here: https://www.police.uk/streetsafe.