SWINDON has secured more than £1.4 million in funding to make the town safer by cracking down on antisocial behaviour and violence against women.

The Home Office has approved the borough council’s two bids for grants from the £50m Safer Streets Fund.

First, £742,500 will be spent on introducing extra measures to prevent these types of crime in Victoria Road, Old Town, Walcot, Toothill and the town centre.

The other approved bid has awarded the same amount of cash to crack down on antisocial behaviour in Eastleaze, Gorse Hill, Eastcott and Park South.

This is the third round of Safer Streets funding received by Swindon Borough Council, which brings its total to £2.4 million.

Funding from round two led to the installation of 10 fixed and 10 deployable CCTV cameras to link back to the council’s control room for monitoring by staff who have direct links to police teams.

This latest cash injection will build on its ongoing work to provide training and support in schools and businesses and work closely with families to provide early interventions.

Councillor Cathy Martyn, cabinet member for health inequalities and housing, said: “I am extremely pleased to hear that Swindon has once again been successful in its bid for funding from the Safer Streets Fund.

“In our bid submissions, we worked with the police and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and used the information received from residents who responded to the consultation, to identify the areas of Swindon where many local residents felt the most unsafe.

“These are the areas where this funding will be focused, in the hopes of making the biggest difference.

“We identified how we propose to best utilise the funding we receive, and we have produced a very thorough plan of proposed interventions, which focus on early intervention, education and youth engagement – measures that could truly make a difference.

“This is the third round of funding we’ve received, so this additional money will add to the proactive work we’re already carrying out with our partners, including more work with local schools, with families who need more intensive support, and more early intervention work to try to prevent situations arising in the first place.

“We want to work with our communities to make our town safer.”

More than 4,000 people responded to the surveys set up by the council to help understand how safe people feel on Swindon’s streets, and where improvements could be made.