NORTH Wales is to get a £1.5 million in funding from the Home Office to make its streets safer.

Funding from the fourth round of the Safer Streets initiative will go towards supporting projects in Deeside, Wrexham and Holyhead.

The Safer Streets Fund is a £75 million Home Office programme that encourages Police and Crime Commissioners and local authorities to bid for investment for initiatives to prevent neighbourhood crime.

The North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner’s team worked closely with North Wales Police, local authorities, schools, justice services and third sector partners to ensure the bid had as much support as possible across the areas receiving funding.

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In Flintshire, the successful bid targets the Shotton and Queensferry areas and amounts to £385,125. The funding will be used for projects including the installation of re-deployable cameras, street lighting and landscape improvements to help improve natural surveillance. The funding will also target areas that have been the focus of increased acquisitive crime and anti-social behaviour. There will also be provision for community development work, with a specific focus around young people.

Partners involved in the Flintshire bid were North Wales Police, Flintshire County Council, Flintshire Youth Justice Services and services involved in working to prevent violence against women in North Wales.

The Leader:

Wrexham is set to benefit from funding of £491,644, which will go towards a number of projects around North Wales’ newest city. Funding will enable the Safe Space Hub at Hafan y Dref to open on Friday nights to provide welfare and first aid to people in the night-time economy. 

Elsewhere in Wrexham, funding from the Safer Streets initiative will go towards school and community grants for youth ASB intervention projects; four street marshals for the night-time economy for one year; the provision of a pop-up police station at Eagles Meadow and a number of Safer Streets Respect days will help target and raise awareness to prevent ASB and VAWG.

The funding will also provide visible police patrols to help tackle and prevent violence against women and girls offences and ASB on Friday and Saturday nights.

North Wales Police and Wrexham Council will also be engaging with Sixth Form colleges and Glyndwr University and the wider public to help increase awareness and signpost individuals to where they can receive support for domestic abuse.

As well as the PCC, North Wales Police, Wrexham Council, Stepping Stones and North Wales Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre were involved in the Wrexham bid.

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Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales, Andy Dunbobbin, said: “I am delighted that the bid for funding from the Safer Streets initiative has been such a success and I would like to thank everyone involved in making sure we secured this money for North Wales.

“I am determined that residents and visitors to North Wales feel as safe and secure as possible in their communities and this funding will go a great way to tackling some of the crime hotspots across the region. From Holyhead in the west to Wrexham in the east, I am determined to deliver safer neighbourhoods and support victims and communities as part of my plan for policing."

The Holyhead Town project on Anglesey will see £692,149 go towards projects such as improving street lighting in around the town centre and the installation of new and upgraded lighting. It will also see the installation of 21 CCTV cameras; the provision of target hardening and crime prevention packs for 250 properties to help prevent neighbourhood crime; and the provision of high visibility police patrols to help tackle and prevent VAWG offences and ASB as part of night-time economy.

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A youth intervention fund jointly administered by the PCC’s office and Holyhead Youth Services will support young people. Peer-led initiatives and interventions will also improve diversionary activities for young people in Holyhead, alongside the provision of youth shelters and youth outreach work.

Superintendent for Local Policing Services at North Wales Police, Helen Corcoran, commented: “This is another example of how a strong partnership approach can do much to benefit a region. I am delighted that we will be able to support these excellent initiatives which will a long way towards helping people to be safe and feel safe in their communities. It is a tremendous achievement and I would like to thank everybody who has been involved.”