A pioneering crime-busting project set up by a horse owner after she fell victim to thieves has received a cash boost from a special scheme using villains’ ill-gotten gains to benefit the community.
Horse Watch North Wales has been awarded £3460 to deter thieves who prey on horse owners across the region from a special fund set up by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick CB QC and North Wales Police.
The Your Community, Your Choice initiative is also supported by the North Wales Police and Community Trust (PACT).
Horse Watch was one of 14 worthy winners from across North Wales sharing a total pot of £42,000.
The cash seized from villains was shared among organisations working to help tackle anti-social behaviour and combat crime and disorder and takes the total taken from criminals and handed over to the public to £120,000 in three years.
Horse Watch was founded by Helen Lacey, from Wrexham, in 2010 when she was spurred into action after she became a victim of equine crime.
She said: “I’m keen on driving, with a horse and carriage, and I had my driving harness stolen.
“Eighteen months later I saw it for sale on an online auction site. I got the police involved, was able to identify the harness as mine and eventually got it back.
“That’s when I decided there was a need for some sort of horse watch scheme and after launching it on social media it soon spread from Wrexham to the whole of North Wales.
“We now have about 3,000 members and we use the North Wales Police Online Watch Link, or OWL as it’s known, to communicate details to them about suspicious activity and details of stolen items related to horses.
“Over the past few years we’ve had lots of successes with this.
“We also circulate information about horses running loose and we have a 100 per cent record for reuniting them with their owners.
“At first I was running Horse Watch on my own but now I have two other people helping me, from Flintshire and Conwy, and we are all official police volunteers.”
She added: “We promote Horse Watch throughout North Wales at equine events, road shows, police open days and pony club gatherings.
“The money from Your Community Your Choice will give a huge boost to the development and promotion of free crime prevention materials for security marking tack, equipment, trailers and carriages. After being marked up all property is included in our security log.”
For details of Horse Watch, go to: http://www.north-wales.police.uk/advice-and-support/safer-business/horse-watch.aspx
The other all-North Wales winner was award-winning Dangerpoint, based at Talacre, where The Point Project provides interactive tours for 360 Key Stage Three pupils emphasising personal and community safety and tackling anti-social behaviour and crime.
It works through fun and interactive activities and is designed like a film set to provide a safe environment to learn about risks and how to keep safe and in ten years has welcomed over 60,000 visitors.
Julie Thomas, Centre Manager for Dangerpoint, said: “This will mean a lot to the young people across North Wales.
“We work with schools to identify those who will most benefit from our services and cover all the scenarios they may find themselves at risk in.”
Your Community Your Choice, now in its third successful year, was launched for 2015 with awards of up to £3,000 apiece available for two groups in each county along with larger amounts for two groups spreading their good work right across North Wales.
The initiative – otherwise known as the Participatory Budgeting Scheme – was partly funded by the money recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act, using cash confiscated from offenders, with the rest coming from the Police Commissioner.
Community groups were urged to apply for awards last autumn using a form on the websites of the Crime Police and Crime Commissioner and North Wales Police.
A shortlist of 32 schemes were chosen by a special panel before members of the public had the chance to vote on their choice of the best schemes, and almost 7,000 votes came flooding in.
Representatives of the 14 projects chosen by vote were invited to the presentation ceremony at police headquarters in Colwyn Bay where they were welcomed by Winston Roddick, Assistant Chief Constable Richard Debicki and David W Williams, Chair of the Police and Community Trust (PACT).
Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick said: “In 2013 we launched a pilot participatory budget grant scheme because we believed the people of North Wales had positive, innovative ideas for reducing crime and anti-social behaviour.
“I also believed that the community should decide which of those projects should get financial support. I would like to thank those communities and community groups which developed innovative and interesting projects and the communities for taking part in the decision-making.
“The response demonstrated to me that communities can work together to make our public places safer.
“In 2015, 32 projects went forward for the public vote, and almost 7,000 members of the public across north Wales cast their vote for their preferred winners.
“Fourteen projects were chosen with grants totalling over £42,000, which have been funded partly through monies recovered from criminals through the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), and partly from the funds which have I have allocated from my Commissioners Fund.
“I would like to thank each and every one of you for submitting your ideas and for developing projects that help to support the Police and Crime Plan and aim to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in your areas.
“Community groups such as yours are vital to the citizens of north Wales, and in helping to ensure that our communities continue to be some of the safest places to live, work and visit in the UK.”
He added: “My overriding objective is that people should feel secure at home and safe in public places and that the police should be visible and available when needed most.
“I am grateful and delighted that your organisations have taken the time to develop projects that help to support this plan. I wish you every success in your communities and look forward to hearing more about each project in the coming months.
“I would also like to pass on my thanks to PACT (Police and Community Trust), the Chair of Trustees David Williams and his team for their support in administering the application process for this scheme.”
Assistant Chief Constable Richard Debicki, said: “North Wales Police are pleased to support this worthwhile scheme in partnership with the Police and Crime Commissioner for the third year running.
“The fact that we use money confiscated from offenders through the Proceeds of Crime Act to help groups who are working hard to do something positive for their communities sends out such a powerful message. This is turning bad money into good to be used for a constructive purpose.
“This scheme is all about making people count. With all 14 winners being voted for by members of the public this is about communities telling us what’s important to them in their area.
“We really value our relationship with the public and we recognise that we can’t reduce crime and disorder without them, they are at the heart of everything we do.
“People know what works best in their own areas and the wide range of winners shows the extent of the imaginative initiatives going on across North Wales to address crime and anti-social behaviour.”
The Anglesey winners were Only Holyhead Boys Aloud Choir, awarded £3,000, and Tudur Cyf, based at the former Capel Ebenezer in Llangefni, which received £2,400 for an IT community training programme with young people using their expertise with new technology to help older members of the community.
Only Boys Aloud North Wales Project Manager Eleri Watkins said: “We have 18 boys from Holyhead and we provide transport, rehearsal facilities and travel all over Wales at no cost to them.
“It’s a fabulous scheme and it gives young lads the opportunities which have been quite life-changing and we have classically-trained singers alongside lads who’ve never done anything like this before.”
The Conwy winners were Llandudno Football Club in the Community, given £3,000 and Conwy Arts Trust Darkroom Project, £2,910 for a darkroom and equipment at Theatr Colwyn, the home of North Wales’s only dedicated photography gallery.
Sam Williams, Business Development Officer for Llandudno Football Club in the Community, said: “The money will go to a new bike shelter – a lot of kids come on their own and use their bikes and we wanted somewhere safe for them to store the bikes and we’re hoping to run safety and maintenance courses as well as organise an open day with the police to come and tag their bikes for security.”
Photography Gallery curator Paul Sampson said: “We want to provide a darkroom to teach young people about using a darkroom and printing photographs, using their mobile phones as negatives so combining old and modern technology to create something up to date and cool.”
In Denbighshire a pioneering Prestatyn project which sees youngsters developing green fingers as a way of keeping out of trouble, the Prestatyn and Meliden Community Action Group, received £2,700 for SEEDS – Social Education Exploring Development Skills – a gardening project.
Johnathan White, one of the team heading the project, said: “The SEEDS project encourages young people who are at risk of offending or are not in education, employment or training, to tidy up areas of the community such as public gardens and open spaces and gives them six weeks of gardening experience, of about three hours a week, to do things like planting, weeding, watering plants and clearing pathways.”
The other Denbighshire county winner was Dragon Riders based in Rhyl, which was awarded £3,000 to help maintain the acclaimed Marsh Tracks BMX course in the town.
Sion Growcott, who runs the biking facility, said: “The grant is very timely and will help with safety equipment and with resurfacing the track and will provide a real lifeline to keep us open.”
Flintshire’s Saltney Ferry (Mold Junction) Residents and Tenants Association has been awarded £2,000 to upgrade its CCTV coverage while Mold-based North East Wales Care and Repair’s Lighting Lives project received £3,000 to provide solar-powered lighting at the homes of vulnerable people throughout the county.
Saltney Ferry Chair Mavis Crofts said: “We have run a very successful CCTV scheme but it wouldn’t work without the help of our local policeman and the reduction in anti-social behaviour has been fantastic and the residents have benefited.”
North East Wales Care and Repair Project Administrator Ian Massie said: “The lighting will reduce their fear of crime and anti-social behaviour and also at this time of year reduce the risk of slips and falls and that has a further benefit to the emergency services.”
In Gwynedd Bangor-based Gwynjim Gymnastics has been awarded £2915 to set up a café while Harlech Community Parks’ project to upgrade the town’s parks and deter vandals and litter-louts was awarded £3,000.
Gwynjim Gymnastics Club founder Gwyn Owen said: “We now have over 360 members aged from three to 13 and we’re in the process of moving to a new purpose-built base on the Llandygai Industrial Estate.
“By having a café within the new facility offering up to 100 places for people to sit, we will able to offer the space and surroundings to gain further access to the community in which we are based.”
Julie Thomas from the Parks group said: “Our fences have been vandalised on many occasions and this money will mean we can replace them with more durable fencing and add disabled access gates so they can enjoy the parks as well.”
In Wrexham the Champions House Steering Group has been awarded £3,000 for the Narrowboat to Recovery project to help people escape from lives of crime and addiction by taking them on reviving and confidence-building canal cruises.
Champions House senior volunteer Zoe Davies said: “Our goal is to have a boat on which we can run canal trips for our members, which will help tremendously with their recovery from addiction or other issues by providing them with a safe and interesting environment and will make a huge difference.”
Wrexham’s other winner was The Salvation Army’s Drop-In for the Homeless, at the ARK Community Centre which received £2726 and Captain Ian Davis, of The Salvation Army, said: “Wrexham is a magnet for homeless people in the area and this gives them the message that the community does value directing funds to help them find a better lifestyle.”
All 14 award winners were:
Anglesey:
Tudur Cyf, Llangefni, IT community training programme, £2,400 and The Aloud Charity
Only Holyhead Boys Aloud, £3,000.
Conwy:
Llandudno Football Club in the Community, Cycle Safety and Security, £3,000 and
Conwy Arts Trust, Darkroom Project, £2,910.
Denbighshire:
Prestatyn and Meliden Community Action Group, SEEDS Social Education Exploring Development Skills, £2,700 and Dragon Riders, Rhyl, £3,000.
Flintshire
North East Wales Care and Repair, Lighting lives, £3,000 and Saltney Ferry Residents and Tenants Association, CCTV upgrade, £2,000.
Gwynedd
Harlech Community Parks, £3,000 and Gwynjim Gymnastics, Community café, £2915.
Wrexham
Champions House Steering Group, The Narrowboat to Recovery, £3,000 and Salvation Army Wrexham, Drop-in for the Homeless, £2,726.
North Wales
Horse Watch North Wales, Equine security, £3,460 and DangerPoint, The Point, £4,900.