A Stoke-on-Trent rugby club has been given £925 from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s People Power Fund to help reduce anti-social behaviour.
Trentham Rugby Union Football Club has been awarded the funding to install CCTV following a number of incidents of anti-social behaviour and vandalism.
The new security measures will help to prevent anti-social behaviour in the neighbouring park from spilling into the club grounds and reducing the need for local officers to attend.
The club, which has a thriving youth section, is also used as a base for other community groups and clubs including running clubs, youth football clubs and yoga groups.
Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire, Matthew Ellis, said:
‘Rugby is a great way for young people to learn to work together as part of a team as well as keeping active. But this money will also benefit the wider community by tackling anti-social behaviour and reducing the need for officers to intervene.’
Mike Proctor, Chairman of Trentham Rugby Club, added:
‘Thanks to the People Power funding grant we have now been able to install perimeter fencing and CCTV equipment which will help to deter crime around the club.
‘Both the club and local police took steps to address this problem in various ways but I really think this grant will make a big difference.’
More money than ever before is being put towards community safety in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. Mr Ellis’ People Power Fund, which provides £500,000 a year in the form of grants of between £100 and £3,000, was part of £2.5 million total community funding from the PCC for 2016/17.
The Commissioner’s Locality Deal Fund has allocated money to local areas through working in partnership with local district and borough councils. And Proceeds of Crime Fund is seeing 100 per cent of funding received by Staffordshire Police going back into local communities, through grants of between £3,000 and £15,000. It is made up of money seized from criminals.
Successful projects in all three funding streams will deliver what’s important to local people based on the four priorities set out in the Commissioner’s Safer, Fairer, United Communities Strategy – tackling the root causes of crime through early intervention, supporting victims and witnesses better, reducing reoffending and increasing public confidence.
