In April 2021 we blogged about a meeting of the Criminal Justice Taskforce chaired by Boris Johnson on the 15th March 2021. The Safer Streets Fund was doubled to £45m to provide further reassurance since the tragic case of Sarah Everard. The fund was originally launched at £25m in October 2019 and £22.4m was allocated in July 2020 across 35 police jurisdictions in England and Wales. £2.6m was being withheld until a later date. The funding will provide better lighting and increased CCTV, targeting areas of concern such as parks and alleyways.
To date, £120 million has now been spent on initiatives such as improving street lighting amongst others. An independent evaluation of the first round of the Safer Street Fund has found that people in communities that have had extra CCTV and street lighting rolled out are less likely to worry about being mugged or robbed.
An update from gov.uk including Independent Evaluation
Evaluation of the first round of the Safer Streets Fund shows that this investment is boosting trust in police and making communities feel safer..
The findings also show that the fund is helping to build confidence in the police, with residents in these areas more likely to think their local police are doing a good or excellent job. This reflects the efforts made to make residents aware of the work being done to make them feel more secure such as fitting new locks, video doorbells and alarms.
The Safer Streets Fund was launched in January 2020, and has to date supported 270 projects aiming to cut neighbourhood crime such as theft, burglary, antisocial behaviour and violence against women and girls. Police and crime commissioners and local authorities in England and Wales, the British Transport Police and eligible civil society organisations have received £120 million in total across 4 rounds of the fund.
Is this the same for Site Security?
Research suggests lighting that provides a level of illumination which clearly identifies people or objects creates a psychological deterrent to criminal activity in the area being protected, and whilst our daylight hours are longer there is always a period of darkness where illumination is required. Security Lighting should be installed to meet the lighting requirements for a particular area in an energy efficient manner but without compromising its effectiveness.
There are a wide range of lighting towers suitable for any given security application ranging from diesel powered, hybrid and even plug-in. However, for an unstaffed security application a lighting tower like our X-SOLAR could be the place to start. It is a self-sufficient unit which takes the away the need for staff to physically switch the lights on and off, the X-SOLAR automatically charges using sunlight whilst in-situ and has an automatic light sensor which switches the lights on as the light fades and switches them off as the light level increases. Not only is the X-SOLAR very efficient, silent and sustainable it also provides 2000sqm of LED light.