Local MP, Kevin Foster, has welcomed the news that  more than £1.1m has been awarded to tackle antisocial behaviour and violence against women and girls here in the bay. 

The Home Office will provide £749,137 from the fourth round of its Safer Streets fund for a raft of projects in the council area, with £382,020 of match funding from the PCC and council.

Torbay residents can expect to see graffiti removed, more police on the beat, mobile CCTV cameras operating and many other improvements.

Op Hundred, the South Devon policing team’s project to get more officers on patrol in the community, is already in action, supported significantly by the uplift in police numbers.

A ‘safe night out’ programme will work with the Bay’s vibrant bar and restaurant scene through things like the relaunch of the Best Bar None programme, which sees responsible licensed premises working together to keep those who threaten their customers out of their businesses.

Next summer residents and visitors to the Bay will be reassured by extra street marshals, funded by this programme, to support the extra policing effort.

A community innovation fund will make £30,000 available to reclaim public spaces like parks and seating areas. This approach has worked wonders in Stonehouse, Plymouth, the beneficiary of an earlier round of Safer Streets funding, because it has engaged local residents and been run by them.