Over £60k of funding secured to make Hucknall town centre safer

Over £60,000 of funding has been secured to be used on several projects to make Hucknall town centre safer.

The Ashfield Community Safety Partnership have worked with the Police Crime Commissioner to secure the funding for Hucknall.

The money is made up of £33,333 from the Police Crime Commissioner's Safer 4 All (Target Hardening) Fund and £30,000 of Locality Funding.

Businesses in the town centre will be supported by the funding to become Safe Space accredited. This follows the successful rollout of the scheme in Sutton earlier this year as part of the Safer Streets Fund.

Around 30 businesses in Hucknall will receive High-Definition CCTV cameras, Passive Infrared sensor (PIR) lighting, along with full training for staff and signage. The Safe Space initiative focuses on addressing concerns relating to women and girl's safety, violence, shop theft, and will help the town centre feel safer for everyone.

Other initiatives will see an innovative, voice-activated, safe point camera installed in Hucknall town centre. The ground-breaking technology, developed by mobile surveillance firm Wireless CCTV Ltd (WCCTV), was installed in Sutton town centre earlier this year.

The safe point camera will be installed alongside three new Ultra High-Definition CCTV cameras in Hucknall over the coming months, to help deter and detect criminality and anti-social behaviour. Officers are also looking at the potential to gate alleyways in the town that are anti-social behaviour hot spots.

These new CCTV cameras are in addition to the rapid deployable cameras installed, during the summer, on Titchfield Park which are monitored 24 hours a day by CCTV operatives. The footage is used to respond to incidents, support investigations, and to identify perpetrators of crime and anti-social behaviour.

Robert Docherty, Director of Place and Communities at Ashfield District Council, said: "This is fantastic news as a result of the Community Safety Team's hard work. This funding will allow us to carry out vital initiatives that will help create a safer town centre in Hucknall for everyone. The Council is committed to creating safe and welcoming town centres, and this money will help us to achieve this aim.

"We have already seen how successful similar schemes have been in Sutton, especially the roll out of the Safe Space accreditation which has improved safety and visibility on Outram Street."

Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry said: "I was delighted to provide funding for these schemes as they will have a real impact on safety and feelings of safety in Hucknall, whilst improving public trust and confidence.

"When a similar scheme was introduced to Sutton-in-Ashfield earlier this year using Safer Streets funding it drew international attention. The people of Hucknall will now also benefit from this innovative partnership working.

"Collaborative working on local projects like this is a great way to ensure public funding is targeted in the right areas to help Make Notts Safe."