Gloucester City Safe, a not-for-profit crime reduction body, has secured extra funding in partnership with Gloucester BID to enable all who live, work, study and visit Gloucester to feel safer.
£46K has been allocated to existing Night Safe Officer and Street Medics schemes to continue for a further 12 months as part of a larger £2m total awarded to Gloucestershire’s Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) from the Home Office’s £50M Safer Street Funds.
Gloucester City Safe is a Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) formed by members of the business community with the sole intention of facilitating the reduction of crime, disorder, and anti-social behaviour. City Safe is representative of both day and night economies, working to reduce shoplifting, theft, anti-social behaviour, alcohol related disorder, street drinking and begging which affect all businesses throughout Gloucester.
Since 2017 the Gloucester BID has cooperated with City Safe to introduce City Protection Officers. The CPOs continue to be joint funded by Gloucester Business Improvement District (BID), OPCC and Gloucester City Council to support visible CPOs who patrol the area, helping to deter crime, such as thieves shoplifting.
Gloucester BID and Gloucester City Council have so far been funding the Night Safe Officer and Street Medics schemes, which have been key in preventing potential incidents. The presence of the highly visible marshals ensure residents and visitors to Gloucester city centre feel safe on a Friday and Saturday night. Now, this extra funding will be used to retain the key services which support Gloucester’s ‘Purple Flag’ accreditation – a promotion of the national Purple Flag safety award.
The Night Safe Officers, wear visible vests which tie-in with the day-time City Protection Officer uniform. Instead of staying at the taxi rank, they now patrol Eastgate Street and the city centre and conduct other core functions, from working with the local taxi companies, door staff, street pastors and medics to targeting hotspots and providing advice if they have incidents. Also supporting lone females and vulnerable people in getting home and conducting welfare checks on the street throughout the evening.
Gloucester Street Medics provide a joint first-response medical and welfare support service to people over the weekend. In June, officers dealt with incidents including head injuries, collapsing, intoxication and a heart attack.
Gloucester City Safe manager Steve Lindsay said, ‘A lot of planning and work has gone into this funding request, which will see businesses in Gloucester cities night-time economy benefiting from the extra funding to support Gloucester BID’s ‘Safety & Security’ priority and is an extra benefit to BID members and the public visiting our city.
‘The whole aim of our Night Safe Officer and Street Medic schemes are to support statutory local services by easing the additional pressures faced in the night-time economy and its businesses. We’re working alongside the Night Safe board to help achieve a safer Gloucester, at the same time supporting our NTE venues who are struggling financially due to the impact of Covid.’
Vice-Chair of Gloucester BID, Chris Nyland said, ‘Thanks to this funding, we can build on the success of the City Protection Officers, Night Safe Officer and Street Medic schemes and increase even further the presence on the streets that our City Safe team provide. The scheme run in Gloucester is the envy of many other towns and cities, we should all be proud of the work they do – the lives they’ve saved and the people they’ve helped. The scheme is led by the BID but run in partnership with the Police and the Council. It means Gloucester is a safer place for all who work, study, visit, socialise and shop there. The success of this scheme has developed over the past couple of years, and they are now a regular sight throughout the city – the city would be lost without them that’s for sure. Thankfully due to this funding the schemes will continue for everyone’s benefit.’
Gloucestershire’s Office of Police and Crime Commission received the good news at the end of July from the Government. Its flagship Safer Streets programme has awarded the OPCC more than £2 million to spend on tackling issues like violence against women and girls, rural crime and anti-social behaviour across the county.
This funding is the second time the PCCs office has been successful with the highly competitive Safer Streets initiative, outperforming most forces around the country, raising a total of more than £3 million. Over the last year, this initiative has helped drive down anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime in Gloucestershire by 59%.
