Essex areas receiving ?4m funds to help people ‘live without fear of …

Local communities across Essex are to benefit from a boost in funding by £4 million to ensure local people “can go out and enjoy their lives without the fear of crime”. The scheme, launched by Roger Hirst, the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, will see around £4m made available to improve public safety across the county, especially for women and girls.

Funds are available to target areas that suffer from anti-social behaviour, neighbourhood crime and where women and girls feel unsafe. The new £4m scheme follows a previous national Safer Streets fund which put £3m of Government funding into eight Essex communities.

Each project includes a range of activity to improve the physical environment, promote community involvement, and create safer spaces. This includes investment in redesigning walkways, lighting, CCTV and activities, as well as strengthening community engagement including schools, young people and businesses.

The improved focus on targeting areas of anti-social behaviour comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to crackdown on such instances of crime whilst on a visit to Chelmsford.^[1] He promised to take a “zero tolerance” attitude on drugs and promised swifter justice measures, increased policing and more.

Roger Hirst Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner said: “Crime is falling in Essex and is down 2.5% in the last twelve months. We are also seeing long term reductions in key types of crime including anti-social behaviour which is down by 60%, and homicide and burglary both of which have halved since 2016.”

“But we know we need to do more to continue to get crime down, support victims and protect the vulnerable. We also need to make sure that people feel safe in their communities and can go out and enjoy their lives without the fear of crime. We know that women and girls feel unsafe in certain areas of Essex and this is unacceptable.”

“We have invested significantly to improve areas where we have been told that people feel unsafe, and this has made a huge difference. In one project area in Colchester, violence against the person offences is down 6.6%, more people are feeling confident visiting the town and confidence levels are up.

“In Chelmsford we know more students are feeling able to use areas of the city they previously felt were no go areas. This is good for them, good for their communities and demonstrates the positive impact of this investment.”

Eight areas across Essex have already benefited from funding, six from the national Safer Streets Fund and two which were funded locally. In Chelmsford, around £550,000 was invested into the Bunny Walks area of the city for CCTV cameras to improve coverage by the university as well as street lighting on a pedestrian bridge over the river in that area.

Around £338,000 was used in Waltham Abbey in 2022 to improve the Ninefields Housing Estate after being identified as a hotspot for anti-social behaviour, fly-tipping and drug offences. The Greenstead estate had £264,043 invested in it after residents raised concern about badly lit alleys which “create the fear of crime within the local community”.

Other areas to benefit from funding included Clacton (2023), Harlow (2023), Colchester town centre (2022), Collingwood Road and River Walkway areas of Witham (2022), and Grays town centre (2021).

References

1. ^{^} vowed to crackdown on such instances of crime whilst on a visit to Chelmsford. (www.essexlive.news)
2. ^{^} Seaside town named worst place for antisocial behaviour in Essex (www.essexlive.news)