West Yorkshire community groups urged to apply for share of criminals' cash

Mayor Tracy Brabin said she was keen to hear ideas from community groups across West Yorkshire

Community groups are being urged to bid for a share of £350,000 for projects which aim to improve public safety in West Yorkshire.

The money comes from the mayor's Safer Communities Fund which uses cash seized from criminals.

Since the fund's launch last year it has handed out £1m in grants to organisations across the county.

Mayor Tracy Brabin said this round of funding was themed around support for victims and witnesses.

She said if groups had an idea for a project then they wanted to hear about it.

"We're determined to create a safer, fairer West Yorkshire and have invested over £1m of money seized from criminal activities back into our communities as part of that," she said.

"Our Safer Communities Fund is backing brilliant projects across the region that help make our local areas safer."

Groups have until 9 June to submit an application to receive up to £8,000 from the fund.

Previous projects to be awarded money include the Bradford City FC Community Foundation, which used the money for sports programmes which teach crime awareness to young people, and Five Towns Veterans, which provides mental health support to veterans and their families in Wakefield.

West Yorkshire Police's Chief Constable John Robins said they worked hard to ensure criminals were not profiting from their actions and welcomed the latest round of funding.

"It is heartening to see that in this round of funding the money that has been taken from criminals is being invested into projects that support victims and witnesses," he said.