Funding victory for fight against anti-social behaviour in Mansfield

Coun Sonya Ward, of Mansfield District Council, tempted Mr Tipping to a meeting of teachers and professionals who work with young people with complex needs to persuade him of the merits of the project.

Now it has been handed a full year’s funding, which means a full-time youth partnership co-ordinator will be appointed to work primarily on prevention.

Coun Ward, who is also Labour’s prospective Parliamentary candidate for the town, said: “This project has the potential to do brilliant things for Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse and Warsop.

“Now we have the funding, we have a real way of stopping anti-social behaviour in the district.

“It’s great to see Mansfield leading on an innovative initiative of dealing with this. Hopefully, other councils can follow in our footsteps once we prove it to be a success.”

Mansfield residents fed-up of anti-social behaviour

Anti-social behaviour was the second largest reported crime in Mansfield last year, with the town centre particularly hard hit.

It led to calls for more preventative work as a means to relieve police resources in the long term.

The co-ordinator project was introduced at the start of the year for an initial six-month period, but Coun Ward and other community leaders argued it needed more time to build relationships and consolidate the changes needed.

One of the professionals behind the project is parental practitioner Anne Callaghan, who said the funding should be looked upon as an investment.

She said: “This can make a massive difference. I have seen countless situations where young people get criminal records when all they needed was some support and guidance.”