A South Staffordshire allotment has been £2,000 from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s People Power Fund to help prevent crime.
Bilbrook Parish Council allotment has been awarded funding to upgrade fencing around the allotment.
The allotments have previously suffered break-ins and the funding will help to prevent damage and theft, benefitting the 23 plot holders.
As part of his commitment to local communities, the Commissioner is providing £500,000 in 2014/15 through the People Power Fund in the form of grants of between £100 and £3,000.
The fund is supporting locally-driven community safety activities in communities throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Mr Ellis said: “I have significantly increased the funding that local areas in Staffordshire have to make their communities safer.
“The Commissioner’s People Power Fund puts half a million pounds back into local communities and is easy and simple to apply for.
“I am pleased to have funded the allotment project to help to reduce crime in the area.”
Councillor Val Chapman, Chairman of Bilbrook Parish Council said: “The allotments in Bilbrook Parish are a tremendous facility for residents of Bilbrook and the Parish Council are extremely grateful to the Police and Crime Commissioner for providing the necessary funding to enable upgrading of the security fencing.”
The People Power Fund is one part of £2.5 million of Commissioner’s Community Funding for 2014/15. The Commissioner’s Locality Deal Fund has allocated money to local areas through working in partnership with local district and borough councils. Meanwhile, the Commissioner’s 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 as Staffordshire Police continue to strip offenders of their assets.
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.
For more information on funding visit www.staffordshire-pcc.gov.uk/fund.
After visiting the allotment project in South Staffordshire, Mr Ellis hosted a council meeting at the South Staffordshire Council Chambers where he spoke to 30 councillors about his role, followed by a question and answer session.
