A Stoke-on-Trent centre has been awarded £3,000 from Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis’ People Power Fund to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour.
The Grocott Centre in Heron Cross has been awarded the funding to build fencing around Heron Cross House to prevent vandalism and theft. The fencing has been put up by local apprentices from social enterprise PM Training.
The centre offers services to elderly people with dementia and physical disabilities by offering them care and activities. Over the past 18 months it has been targeted by people stealing gardening equipment and breaking the windows on their mini bus.
As part of his commitment to local communities, the Commissioner is providing £500,000 in 2015/16 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: “The Commissioner’s People Power Fund puts half a million pounds back into local communities and is easy and simple to apply for.
“This project is exactly the reason that the funding is for, it helps to reduce crime in the area and means local people feel safer. It also helps to reduce the time that officers keep coming back to the centre.”
Derek Capey, Chairman of The Grocott Cente, said: “It’s brilliant that we received the funding because it means that we can sleep easier at night knowing that there is secure fencing around. It also saves police time as they don’t have to keep coming out so it’s a good form of prevention.”
Debbie Campbell, Chief Officer at The Grocott Centre, said: “The fencing is giving people more confidence of what our service offers and we are now creating raised beds and vegetable patches for the elderly people as they now feel safe in the garden.”
The People Power Fund is one part of £2.5 million of Commissioner’s Community Funding for 2015/16. 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.
