South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
Newsletter
July 2018
Schools have closed for the summer holidays which at the time of writing promise to be warm. Many young people will be out of the house and we hope they will find good things to do.
I know that many people put on various activities for children and young people in the long holidays, and, indeed throughout the year. I am pleased to be able to encourage and support some of that by offering relatively small sums of money through three grant schemes I have.
First, there are grants up to £5,000 available through my countywide small grants scheme.
Then there are micro grants up to £1,000 through schemes run in conjunction with the Barnsley Chronicle and the Rotherham Advertiser.
Just go on line - read the terms and apply. As long as the activities fit my Police and Crime Plan priorities you can apply. Each grant scheme is open all year so there may be things you are planning later on.
I have visited a number of the activities funded in thus way and they have ranged from support to air cadets with climbing gear, to boxing clubs for equipment, to running fun days.
Funding from the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner’s community grant scheme is now available to local community groups within South Yorkshire.
Local non-profit organisations are encouraged to apply for the funding of up to £5,000 to help them provide services to local communities to help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour and protect vulnerable people.
Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police Stephen Watson, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive Jamie Courtney, Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings and Chair of South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, Councillor Chris Lamb, have today signed the joint collaboration agreement to outline the terms and vision of the collaborative work between the organisations.
The strategic agreement formalises the roles, responsibilities, aims and objectives of the partnership to build on the existing and effective collaborations achieved so far.
YOYO Produces Radio Advertisements For Air on Hallam FM
The YOYO project visited four schools across South Yorkshire delivering lessons on guns, gangs and knives and child sexual exploitation (CSE).
Brinsworth Academy and Wales High School in Rotherham produced podcasts and radio advertisements on guns, gangs and knives and The Learning Central in Doncaster and Darton College in Barnsley produced radio advertisements on spotting the signs of CSE.
Six professionalised radio advertisments have been produced using the content recorded in the lessons. The six advertisements produced are currently playing on Hallam FM throughout July and August as an awareness raising campaign.
You can listen to the radio advertisments here or view and listen to all of the content produced by YOYO pupils on the new website www.yoyosyorks.co.uk
Dr Billings met retired members of Unison at the trade union’s Rotherham headquarters in Downs Row. He spoke about his role and the pressures that the police were under across South Yorkshire.
He said: “Nationally since 2010, we have lost 20,000 police officers, due to government cuts in grant. In South Yorkshire we have seen a fall of 500 officers. This is putting the force under great pressure as it tries to restore neighbourhood policing and answer all the calls on its service.”
“The visit of President Trump had seen over one hundred officers deployed to guard him which was another drain on resources.
“However, despite this, the force is in a better place than it was four years ago as recent inspections by Her Majesty’s Inspectors had shown.”
Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner said: “I note today’s crime statistics from the ONS. The crime figures present a mixed picture – drug offences down by 7% in South Yorkshire but violence against the person up by 35%.
“It is important that we understand the reasons for any increases or decreases if we want to find effective strategies for getting all crime down.
“I welcome the judgement in this case and am sorry for the distress caused to Sir Cliff Richard over this difficult period of time.
“South Yorkshire Police admitted and acknowledged their mistakes, settling damages with Sir Cliff Richard out of court in 2017.
“I have also been assured by South Yorkshire Police, that they have implemented the five recommendations in the 2014 Trotter Review, an independent review into the disclosure of information to the BBC. This was conducted by former Chief Constable Andy Trotter and commissioned by my predecessor.”
Dr Billings, visited Royston police station in Barnsley on Wednesday, 4 July to meet police and partner agencies who are co-located there.
The Commissioner also went onto the streets of Carlton with neighbourhood police and children from Carlton Primary School who were learning about the dangers of speeding.
The children took it in turns to operate a speed gun. Where motorists had significantly exceeded 30mph they were flagged down by a police officer and the children explained to them the dangers their driving posed to children and other road users.
The Commissioner met with South Yorkshire MPs in July. He met with Doncaster MPs Ed Miliband, Rosie Winterton and Caroline Flint, and the District Commander, Shaun Morley at College road police station to discuss local policing issues.
The MPs were briefed on a number of topics, including: the restoration of neighbourhood policing; work with the four Doncaster prisons; a more vigorous approach to policing in the town centre; tougher action against organised gangs.
The Commissioner spoke about growing collaboration between police and the Fire Rescue Service. They also discussed actions to disrupt off-road biking. Chief Superintendent Morley and the commissioner spoke about a commitment to increase the number of police bikers as part of a more pro-active response.
Dr Billings and Chief Constable Stephen Watson , later met with MPs from Rotherham and Sheffield. MPs Clive Betts, Gill Furniss, Paul Blomfield, Jared O’Mara, Sir Kevin Barron and Sarah Champion all attended at force headquarters to discuss policing issues.
The MPs were briefed on a range of topics including: the restoration of neighbourhood policing; crack downs on off-road bikers; initiatives to tackle knife crime; the replacement of the 101 call system.
The Commissioner also spoke about growing collaboration between police and the Fire and Rescue Service and the continuing pressures on police finances due to the cost of ‘legacy issues’ such as the National Crime Agency’s investigations into non-recent child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
Both groups will meet again later in the year to assess progress.
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
Ground Floor, Carbrook House, Carbrook Hall Road, Sheffield, S9 2EH
