A Safe Haven bus, additional CCTV cameras and boosted police presence, to help make nighttime hotspots in Bath city centre safer, will be introduced thanks to a £329,152 grant.
Bath and North East Somerset Council together with Bath Business Improvement District (BID), Avon and Somerset Police, the Police Crime Commissioner (PCC), Youth Connect South West, Project 28, Bath Spa University, the University of Bath and the Student Community Partnership helped secure the Home Office Safer Streets Funding.
The grant will be used to target neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls.
It will also help to fund a Youth Hub and additional detached work in the city centre, as well as bespoke training and additional resources to enable police officers to identify and respond to violence and anti-social behaviour in the nighttime economy.
Councillor Dine Romero, cabinet member for Children and Young People, and Communities, said: “Securing this funding will allow us to introduce changes that will make nighttime central Bath safer for everyone. Together with our partners, we will be taking specific measures to reduce crime and support the victims. We will also be working on a crime prevention programmes to change attitudes and behaviours and prevent these offences from happening in the first place. It’s important that people can feel safe on our streets after dark.”
PCC Mark Shelford said: “I am delighted the Bath and North East Somerset Council has received additional funding as part of Safer Streets 4 and I know the initiatives that will be implemented will reassure the local community. The efforts of all those involved will help to tackle anti-social behaviour and make public places safer for everyone, particularly women and girls.”
Allison Herbert, chief executive of the Bath BID said: “This funding will go a long way in improving feelings of safety for everyone within the community at night time and will enable us to work with partners to improve the ‘Safe Night Out’ offering in Bath City centre. We are very much looking forward to seeing all the projects implemented.”
Tracey Pike, CEO Youth Connect South West, said: “We are very pleased to receive this funding to support our new City centre youth provision and employability hub which will open in September 2022. Youth workers will also work on the streets in the centre of Bath, keeping young people safe and offering a wide range of programs and activities.”
The funding will be received over two years and afterwards the safe bus will be maintained by the Bath BID and the additional CCTV by B&NES Council.
Very good news indeed. Now we’re dealing with Bath Residents’ most basic needs – Safety and Security.
We can all start caring for the plight of the Greater Horseshoe Bat when we’re confident WE won’t be hospitalised by some violent criminal, or dispossessed of whatever few possessions we’ve worked for by some petty criminal.
Drugs are fuelling most of that crime, so hopefully our police can spot the dealers (clue – hood up and hanging bling) and eradicate their presence from our city. Not sure if knocking the top two storeys off a public car park will help with that ‘though.