Through a number of projects we’ve supported the provision of items of personal or household safety equipment to residents and households across the area
When? 2020-2025 ongoing
Partners: VANEL. Capacity Buildings Ltd. Local Ward Councillors. Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner. Humberside Police. Local Neighbourhood Watch Groups.
Big Local North Cleethorpes has had a long-term theme of helping to keep our community and residents safe through working on community safety initiatives.
When a Safer Streets funded programme was delivered in the West Marsh of Grimsby by VANEL in 2021, Big Local kept an eye on what worked well during that initiative. One approach used in West Marsh was the handing out of free items of household or personal safety equipment to households. This included things like personal alarms; stick on vibration alarm; torches; timer switches and much more. Thousands of items were handed out during that programme and feedback was very positive and the peace of mind reported back by residents was very evident.
So, Big Local North Cleethorpes decided to deliver something very similar in the North Cleethorpes area. A small investment of funds purchased a few hundreds items, and the team at VANEL who led on the Safer Streets handout started getting referrals for local households who might be at risk and handing them out items. Once again feedback was positive.
The programme than expanded as VANEL were able to find other project funding that could purchase items that could be distributed into our North Cleethorpes area of interest.
A project from the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner allowed items to be shared across the whole of North East Lincolnshire. So of course we managed to get dozens more households in North Cleethorpes supported in that way.
The local Sidney Sussex Ward Councillors were also happy to support the project and invested some of their ward budget from 2023-2025 to purchase more items. Some items in these rounds were very specific too – such as shed alarms or bike D-locks.
Further projects helped provide subsidised items to local allotment plot holders (torches with built in personal alarms were popular).
Alongside the equipment, Big Local and VANEL handed out useful information such as the Stay Safe guides or burglary prevention leaflets. “Report IT” postcards were also shared, as were “No Cold Caller” window stickers. Not all of these items were funded directly by Big Local North Cleethorpes but the connections made by VANEL and Big Local helped make these resources available to be shared locally.
From PCC and ward councillor and Big Local funding we’ve also been able to work with local partners to reach Neighbourhood Watch groups in Sidney Sussex and Croft Baker wards to provide a few video doorbells and CCTV’s.
VANEL and Big Local have established a long term positive relationship with the local Neighbourhood Policing Teams and this means we take referrals for equipment when the Police identify a victim of crime or someone who is vulnerable or at risk of crime. Big Local and VANEL receive referrals and help provide items to the households if possible.
To date, perhaps 120 households across North Cleethorpes have directly received equipment through programmes in the area either directly funded by Big Local or as a result of our connected engagement on this issue.
We get feedback and responses from the public that make it clear that these very small interventions – handing out something very small, cheap and simple – can make a huge difference.
