Government slashes women's safety funding in the North East forcing cutbacks

The Government has slashed Northumbria Police's funding for safer spaces for women just days before announcing its own plans to tackle the same problem- with the Police and Crime Commissioner calling it a 'betrayal.'

Kim McGuinness has hit out at the hypocrisy of the Government for announcing its own plans to tackle spiking- days after taking away £180K of North East funds ring fenced for the same issue.

Home Office officials have announced they are pulling the plug on a third of the funding promised for Northumbria's Safer Streets project which is dedicated to catching anyone who commits crimes like spiking or preying on vulnerable people in the nighttime economy. Increased patrols, wardens and CCTV monitoring now have to be reviewed with expected cutbacks.

Kim McGuinness said: “Government’s taking £180K from us here in the North East to tackle issues like spiking while shouting about their own crackdown intentions. My office is getting emails about significant funding cuts to work we already have in progress.

“The Home Secretary has said tackling Violence Against Women and Girls is a personal priority and how Government will do what is necessary to keep people safe. Pulling £185,000 of funding to tackle this is certainly not necessary nor is it making something a priority – it’s anything but. They’re trying to pull wool over people’s eyes with this.

“By Government’s own admission, ‘Safer Streets is growing confidence in policing’ – yet it’s slashing our funding to deliver the very work that is making an impact.”

She added: “We are having to have the difficult conversations with partners, with councils about how we can work around the financial damage here. There is a huge backlash locally as this is, yet another Government imposed barrier to us getting on with the job and keeping people safe.

“You can’t quietly slash funding one minute, leaving local projects in the balance, and yet make big claims and promises in the same breath. It’s a betrayal on public safety and a betrayal on those already working to improve women’s safety in public places in the North East.”