Barnsley residents vote in the first PB police pilot

The pilot took a community grants pot approach and received over 27 applications for the funding from community and voluntary groups in Barnsley.  On the day, 14 projects were funded by people voting for them.

The money came from the Citizens' Award Grants pot and the event was led and run by South Yorkshire Police Authority.

This innovative approach by South Yorkshire, paves the way for them to use £150,000 of police money for PB next year and for other police authorities and forces to give it a go.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary is committed to police authorities and forces using PB particularly around community safety and neighbourhood policing.  She is offering up to 20 pilots £20,000 each to pilot the use of PB by police forces and authorities.  

The PBU recognises the importance of this area of work and ran a workshop with seven police authorities last week, to develop PB models for the police setting and is currently recruiting for a co-ordinator to specifically focus on police and health PB projects.  We hope to see many more PB police projects in the coming months.