The Home Office has announced a new round of protective security grants for places of worship. Churches are eligible to apply from now until 15 August when applications close.
Full information is available at Protective security schemes for places of worship - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Churches are eligible if:
- you have experienced hate crime at your place of worship, or
- you feel that your place of worship is vulnerable to hate crime; for example, if hate crime has happened at other places of worship or sites in your community, or if people attending your place of worship have experienced hate crime in the local area.
The application must be for a place of worship and/or associated faith community centre located in England and Wales.
Richard Hackett, Priest in Charge of Darby End, Dudley Wood and Netherton was successful in obtaining a grant in the last round of applications he said:
"Following a spate of vandalism on the church site, broken windows, graves, and a death threat aimed at the vicar, we felt that as the only building in the area being targeted, it could be considered a specific crime against the church itself. The initial application was very straightforward, and we applied for all three levels (window protection, security lighting, and CCTV), there was a follow up meeting with an individual who assessed the need, and with an installation engineer who built the proposal, which all felt very positive. Following this meeting we were fortunate, to find out that we had been successful in receiving a grant towards the CCTV and Security Lighting specifications, and was able to bring about the required Faculty through the Archdeacon and proceed with the installation."
To support applicants the Community Security Trust is a free webinar on 10 July, 7pm. The webinar will discuss the details of the scheme, what is covered and go through how to apply in a step-by-step process. You can see, and register for this, and all Community Security Trust up-coming webinars in their new Zoom Hub by clicking HERE
