Decision details

The Council have received notification from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner that Doncaster will receive £106k of funding from the second round of the Home Office Safer Streets fund.

Doncaster was part of an initial tri-partite bid with Rotherham and Barnsley Councils and South Yorkshire Police. The bid sought to fund a number of initiatives in the Dearne Valley area to tackle acquisitive crime, enhance investigations and improve public confidence. The bid for Doncaster focused upon the Mexborough area, as we were aware of particular issues following a recent murder in January this year.

The bid for Mexborough was based around the following outcomes:

• Improved public sense of safety, pertinent to recent events.
• Improved confidence in the partner agencies
• Disruption to Organised Crime Group (OCG) activity
• Deter and detect a wide range of other crimes (environmental, crimes against the person etc.)

The awarded funding totals £106k and is broken down into three main elements. The first is £32k awarded for the target hardening of properties, using smartwater and other crime reduction tools.

The second is £64k provided for the purchase of additional CCTV, which will be positioned in key areas with higher levels of crime and anti-social behaviour, or where the public feel vulnerable. Work has already started in identifying these areas.

The final element is £10k to be used for the development of neighbourhood networks. These networks will be very important, as they will involve the local community developing active groups to follow similar principals to neighbourhood watch. The funding will kick-start these local groups and fund the purchase of signage and marketing materials.

In terms of administering the funding, we have an established locality Partnership structure in the Mexborough area (Mexborough Locality Bronze Plus) which would be able to monitor the project going forward, recognising the funding would have to be spent by March 2022.

To approve the receipt of grant funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), which relates to the successful award of Safer Streets Funding from the Home Office.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED

Present a business case to the Senior Management Team seeking approval to use grant funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in a specified way.

Option 1: Do Nothing
This is not viewed as a viable option, as without the required approval to use grant funding in this way; we may risk non compliance with financial regulations. Should we not take up the option to utilise this funding, it would mean that a number of important projects for this area would not go ahead.

Option 2: Seek approval to use the grant funding received from the OPCC for the purpose specified in this report.

Recommended option - utilising this additional grant funding in this way would enable the Council and partners the ability to support Iocal initiatives and activities and respond to emerging priorities and challenges. It would also enable the Safer Stronger Doncaster Partnership (SSDP) to continue to tackle the key priorities identified within the Community Safety strategy, as below:

• Protecting Vulnerable People;
• Reducing Anti-Social Behaviour;
• Reducing Crime and Re-offending;
• Tackling Serious and Organised Crime;
• Reducing Substance and Alcohol Misuse.