ALMOST £140,000 has been pledged to continue funding projects designed to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour across the Forest of Dean.

Despite pressure to make cuts to his budget, Gloucestershire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Martin Surl said at a Commissioner’s Convention in Tewkesbury on Tuesday, the projects are an ‘essential’ element of community policing.

The £138,704 allocated to the Forest is part of a £1million pledge to support projects across the county.

Mr Surl, who has been in post since 2011, said: “It is a significant amount of money but how it is being spent is what is important. The success of these projects is helping to reduce demand on the police and is an essential element of community policing.

 

“I have always said communities have an important role to play in reducing crime because the police can’t do it on their own. That’s why I set out to involve community and voluntary sectors in my police and crime plan, and I am delighted they have bought into the idea so effectively and with such enthusiasm.

“I believe communities can make an effective contribution towards crime prevention and it’s important they know their funding is secure at least until March 2017 as I have promised from day one. It’s the police and the public working together.” 

The commissioner’s fund draws on the PCC’s annual budget and funding from the Ministry of Justice. Mr Surl set it up following his election in 2012 to support schemes put forward by local people to make their communities safer. Since then, more than 200 neighbourhood projects and organisations have received funding to help get their ideas off the ground.