MORE CCTV cameras, better lighting and spruced up underpasses have all been added to Hereford as the city aims to reduce violence against women and girls. 

Over £860,000 of Home Office funding has helped deliver the Safer Streets project, which has been delivered through a successful collaboration with partners passionate about making our streets safer.

Over the last 18 months, 43 new CCTV cameras have been installed in Hereford, as well as upgarding four analogue ones to digital. 

These are located at Great Western Way, Whitecross Road, Whitecross subway, Castle Green, Mill Street, Bishop's Meadows, the Old Bridge, Aylestone Hill, Greyfriars subway, Eign Gate subway, North Tow Path, Widemarsh Street, King George V playing fields, Gwynne Street, John Venn cemetery, Canary Bridge, Asda roundabout and Tesco roundabout. 

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An additional nine street lamps have also been installed, as well as landscaping works to clear away overgrown trees, bushes and foliage to make public spaces more open and allow natural lighting and surveillance.

Other initiatives include Hereford College of Arts designing two large pieces of art in the city's pedestrian subwats to make the spaces more vibrant and welcoming.; a high-profile 'Time to Change' campaign to raise awareness about unacceptable behaviour, reporting and signposting to support; an expansion of Vennture's 'lean on me' and street ambassador/pastor scheme; and West Mercia Women's Aid and Purple Leaf helping to educate and train 2,700 school children in years six, nine and 12.

Inspector Julie Watson, Project Manager 2022-2023, said: "A number of surveys were carried by out by our partners at Vennture in order to identify areas of concern and measures that could be implemented to address these.

"The Hereford Safer Streets programme has doubled the CCTV capacity within Hereford City, expanding the area of coverage and providing high quality digital images to help prevent crime and make our communities feel safer utilising public spaces.

"This increased CCTV capacity has been enhanced by improved street lighting as well as landscaping of our overgrown green spaces to provide more natural surveillance and light penetration making these spaces feel less hostile, particularly during hours of darkness."