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Funding to improve community safety
26/09/2007
Funding of £1 million is to be made available for community safety initiatives including late night taxi marshal schemes, Safe Zones, extra enforcement at known problem spots and high visible policing.
Speaking at the Violence Reduction Unit's 'Communities Against Alcohol Fuelled Violence' conference where year two of the anti-violence campaign was launched, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill announced the funding for Community Safety Partnerships. This will support projects that reduce violence, particularly alcohol fuelled violence, in city and town centres over the festive period.
Mr MacAskill also encouraged stakeholders to keep up the good work they are doing to make their communities safe for residents and called on all of them to work together to help reduce the toll of alcohol fuelled violence and knife crime in Scotland.
Mr MacAskill said:
"The Scottish Government is committed to building stronger and safer communities, where families feel safe to go out and enjoy a meal or drink in the evening without fear of being harassed by aggressive drunks or threatening behaviour.
"Sadly, there's barely a weekend that goes by without one incident or another to remind us of the importance of tackling violence, and in particular, alcohol fuelled violence.
"I've already outlined action to make sure that alcohol can't be seen as a mitigating factor, to crackdown on alcohol misuse by banning irresponsible promotions in off-sales and deal with the consequences by proposing a "polluter pays" approach to funding extra policing capacity.
"I hope the projects funded through this additional money - such as taxi marshals, high visible targeted policing, and Safe night zones - can make the streets of our towns and cities safer and help people to have a more enjoyable Christmas and New Year.
"It is after all a time for enjoyment and celebration and it's important that we don't let the minority spoil the fun for everyone. Projects funded through a similar initiative last year had a positive impact and that's why I've decided to provide funding for another year and broaden its allocation across Scotland. This should allow everyone to build on the initial success.
"I know that the Violence Reduction Unit, police forces and other stakeholders have already done some tremendous work to help make Scotland safer. We need to keep that momentum going and I hope the second year of the Safer Scotland campaign is even more successful than the first."
The Violence Reduction Unit works across Scotland to encourage a strategic approach to tackling violence. They also coordinate the Safer Scotland anti-violence campaign, which is entering its second year. The campaign will see coordinated action across Scotland by police forces and their respective partners over the next six months with the focus on:
- Reducing possession and access to weapons, particularly knives
- Reducing youth access to and consumption of alcohol
- Diverting youths away from street gang membership/violent group activity
The extra funding awarded to Community Safety Partnerships comes from the existing Community Safety budget and will be shared amongst the 32 Community Safety Partnerships, following approval of proposed projects.
The funding has been allocated by using "Group 1" - serious non-sexual crimes of violence such as murder, robbery or serious assault - per head of the population to prioritise areas into 5 bands. The highest allocation is £100,000 for Glasgow Community Safety Partnership.