Croydon Council has secured £165,000 through the government’s Safer Streets Fund to tackle crime in the town centre.
The funding will be used for projects aimed to reduce personal robberies, knife crime and violence in the town centre with a focus on intervention for girls.
The funding will be used in several ways to increase safety in the town centre. The council will continue to work with our community partners to deliver outreach sessions that will intervene with young people who are most vulnerable to offending and criminal exploitation.
There will also be a focus on delivering specific female outreach in the town centre. The aim is to work with women and girls at risk of entering the criminal justice system by engaging and steering young women away from crime. The extra funding will also deliver group sessions and one to one sessions with young women and will also focus on personal safety.
When elected in May 2022, Executive Mayor Jason Perry pledged to make Croydon a cleaner, healthier and safer place to live and to work for everyone. Since then, the council has been working with partners to curb antisocial behaviour in the town centre and help residents feel safer on the streets. The council has worked with Croydon Met Police, BID Rangers and outreach organisations to tackle antisocial behaviour and help vulnerable people get the support they need. A Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) was also launched in May, giving the police extra powers to tackle antisocial behaviour.
The funding from the Safer Streets Fund will be used to fund these projects across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.
“I promised to listen to residents and to work to make Croydon a safer place to live for everyone. This funding from the Home Office is an important step towards making our town centre spaces more welcoming and to tackle violence against women and girls.
“Residents, businesses and visitors to our town centre need to feel safe and the extra resources from this funding will help to tackle street crime and restore pride in our borough.”
Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon
