§ Mr. MaddenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received regarding the future of the safer cities project in Bradford; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. JackI have received written representations on the future funding of the Bradford safer cities project from the hon. Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Cryer), from the chairman of the steering committee of the project and the chair of the community safety strategy group of Bradford city council.
As I explained in my statement of 7 January, Home Office grant funding to 16 of the existing 20 projects, including Bradford, will be reduced from £250,000 to £100,000 in 1993–94 and will end in March 1994. This will release funds for the new phase of safer cities. Some additional funding will be available in 1993–94 from a central budget of £500,000 to assist work aimed at leaving in place satisfactory continuing arrangements for the maintenance and development of local multi-agency crime prevention work.
Although safer cities funding is to come to an end after March 1994, there are other sources of Government funding for crime prevention. Bradford is one of the city challenge pacemaker authorities, and has formulated extensive community safety proposals in its action plan. I understand that more than £390,000 is being spent on a wide range of activity, which is beginning to have a real impact on crime prevention in the challenge area.
There is also a local drugs prevention team in Bradford, which has a budget of £75,000 per year for grant aid to local drugs prevention projects.