How some of the Safer Streets Fund has been spent in Northampton and what is left to come

More works have been completed as part of the Safer Streets Fund spending in Northampton.

A number of new CCTV cameras have been installed across the town centre as well as in Blackthorn and Bellinge. Lighting has also been improved in certain areas and underpass improvements are in the pipeline.

The town centre works are part of £448,000 secured from central Government’s Safer Streets Funds, acquired by the Office for Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) and West Northamptonshire Council and earmarked for Kettering and Northampton town centres.

A further, separate bid for £99,000 was also secured to make improvements in Bellinge and Blackthorn.

The funding is set aside for authorities to use to reduce criminal activity and make areas safer for residents.

Some work has been completed, some is ongoing and some is planned for the not-too-distant future, so Chronicle & Echo has rounded up what has been done with the funding so far and what is yet to come.

What has already happened with both the £448,000 and the £99,000 funds?

• Lighting improvements around taxi ranks on Mercers Row, Wood Hill and George Row.
• CCTV cameras installed around St Giles Churchyard and Newlands Car Park.
• CCTV camera installed in Spinneyside Walk, just behind Kirton Close, which a WNC spokeswoman says has seen a “a huge reduction in anti-social and criminal behaviour”.
• Three CCTV cameras in Blackthorn and Bellinge reinstated and are awaiting BT fibre upgrades, according to the council.
• Youth provision in Blackthorn and Bellinge including one-to-one mentoring with young people not in education, available on Monday afternoons in August, and a youth event in Bellinge in July, which included guest speaker Andre Arissol, who is a professional basketball player.

Where are the town centre CCTV cameras located?

• 13 cameras in the Racecourse area.
• Six cameras around Northampton General Hospital, including Billing Road, Cliftonville and Cheyne walk.
• Two cameras in Wellingborough road.
• One camera in St Giles Churchyard.
• Two cameras in Newlands car park.
• Eight help points with cameras at various locations around town.

What is left to come?

• One town Centre CCTV camera to be upgraded.
• Improvements to lighting along the footpath in Becket’s Park between Victoria Promenade and the university bridge.
• The movement of one lighting column on Kings Street to improve the visibility.
• Underpass lighting for three under Great Billing Way and four under Blackthorn Road. A council spokeswoman says they are awaiting an installation date from Balfour Beauty, but it “should be very soon”.
• Street column signage to promote the It Only Takes One Campaign, which tackles violence against women, The Flare App and to highlight the presence of the Sno-Van in Northampton, which is expected to be delivered by the end of September.

When the funding was first secured, Commissioner Stephen Mold said: “This money will be used on practical measures to tackle crime and make people safer and will focus on the priorities that local people have told us they want to see dealt with.

“We’ll be working in partnership with other agencies and with local communities to make Northamptonshire safer.

"I’m pleased to have been able to bring more money to the county to do this and to have the opportunity to do even more to directly protect local communities and to focus on preventing crime.”