A summary of the Safer Streets East Marsh programme running from 2022 – 2023.
Jump straight to watching our video here or our list of projects here. Or download the final booklet we produced at the conclusion of the project.
The Safer Streets East Marsh programme ran for around a year from late 2022 to late 2023. Safer Streets is a national Home Office programme and through applications via the office of the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner, Grimsby was successful, first in West Marsh and then in East Marsh, in bringing this funding into the area for the benefit of our residents. Read more about the funding here.
The primary purpose of Safer Streets East Marsh was to reduce crime, the impacts of crime and the perceptions of crime within the East Marsh with a focus on burglary. Whilst this was a programme managed by North East Lincolnshire Council and directly supported by Humberside Police, it was first and foremost a partnership project bring together dozens of organisations, groups, businesses and residents with a stake in East Marsh to collectively make the area a better place to live and work through tackling crime. Find out about all the partners involved in the programme here.
Safer Streets involved a number of very physical improvements around the East Marsh:
9 new CCTV cameras were installed across crime hotspots along with new signage and lighting to make these effective.
Over 11 tons of flytipped waste was cleared from alleyways and then over 30 alley gates were either installed, replaced or repaired.
Well over 500 households received visits from a specialist team at Empower to review their home security and install lights, CCTVs, locks and other home safety improvements to make their home more secure.
A number of partner organisations were selected to lead on a range of community safety projects, and in addition, through a ‘community wallet’ fund, many other organisations were able to suggest projects to receive funding to achieve their more local security needs.
Community engagement was extensive. The Safer Streets team visited almost all the households across the target area in central East Marsh and spoke to hundreds of local residents. East Marsh United (EMU) ran an office in Freeman Street Market as a Centre of Excellence for the programme and regular community drop-ins were run by East Marsh Involve (EMI) and VANEL.
Shalom acted as a hub for activities aimed at supporting young people whilst Foresight trained staff and volunteers to support their client group of people with disabilities.
A ‘security cache’ project provided nearly 300 households with small items of personal or household safety equipment across the whole of East Marsh to complement the more focused household target hardening programme.
Over 500 SelectaDNA kits were distributed to households for property marking.
The local Neighbourhood Policing team held a number of ‘days of action’ and ran a series of Operations in the ward to complement and focus their normal policing activities. The Police were an active supporter of all parts of the delivery programme.
Sports activities were delivered to help provide diversion to young people but also to help engage them and their families. Two boxing groups were supported and a fitness project for adults was also set up.
During the programme, the building in Grant Thorold park was independently reopened as the Canopy Community Hub and became a new focal point for activities to support the park in the centre of the Safer Streets area. The building received funding for rooftop security measures; for equipment to allow the children from the Forest School co-located there to use the park; hosted drop-ins and events including regular Safer Streets funded fitness and sports activities and much more. Their security shutters also repainted through a major urban artwork project to make the building more attractive when closed and to help with a ‘designing out crime’ approach.
A Keeping Older People Safe initiative ran an advice day for older people in the ward and created and published a “Stay Safe” booklet, over 2000 copies of which were distributed around the ward.
Two major events – “Movies on the Marsh” – were organised by local groups and held in Grant Thorold Park and attracted hundreds of residents.
A number of longer-term projects will continue long after 2023 having been kick started with seed funding from Safer Streets. Hopefully the derelict Mariners Pub will be brought back into community use by EMU. The pedestrian railway bridge will get some major repairs courtesy of the Council but will get additional care through an EMI project aimed at reducing violence against women and girls. And a piece of waste ground owned by LHP will aim to be brought back to life as a resident supported ‘pocket park’.