Flintshire Scout hut refurb boosted by cash seized from criminals

A village scout hut is to get a much-needed makeover to turn it into a real hub for the local community – thanks to cash seized by the police from North Wales criminals.

The First Mynydd Isa Scout Group are one of two Flintshire winners to be given £2,500 from a special fund run by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones.

The Group will now be able to press ahead with a major makeover for the scout hut which already regularly plays host to over 150 young people and is in use seven days a week.

Group Scout Leader Dan Reynolds said:

“The Scout Hut was built 27 years ago so and as well as 80 Scouts and also Cubs, Beavers and Guides, it is much in demand from other local organisations but it does need renovating.

We want to replace the toilets and improve the other facilities so it can be a centre of excellence for the district with groups coming there to camp.

It would have taken a long time to raise this money so receiving the grant means we can start straight away and move other projects forward as well.”

The Your Community, Your Choice initiative is also supported by the North Wales Police and Community Trust (PACT) which is celebrating its 20^th anniversary in 2018.

It is the fifth year of the awards scheme and much of over £160,000 handed out to deserving causes in that time has been recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act, using cash seized from offenders with the rest coming from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The scheme is aimed at organisations who pledge to run projects to tackle anti-social behaviour and combat crime and disorder in line with the priorities in Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan.

This year there are 14 grants totaling almost £40,000 given to support schemes by community organisations with an online vote deciding the successful applicants from among 35 projects submitted and almost 10,000 votes cast.

The Mynydd Isa Scouts received their award at the annual Your Community, Your Choice presentation ceremony at North Wales Police headquarters in Colwyn Bay.

Flintshire’s other successful scheme was the Friends of Park Ave ‘Rec’ in Saltney who received £2,500 for their Community Restoration Project which aims to launch an community games and fete days in March and July to encourage local people and community groups to get involved.

The scheme includes raised flower beds for residents, tree-planting, a picnic area, a wheelchair accessible pathway and CCTV to deter vandals who have blighted the area.

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, who jointly presented the awards with Assistant Chief Constable Richard Debicki, said:

“I am delighted that my Your Community Your Choice fund continues to support community projects across north Wales for a sixth consecutive year.

I recently launched my Social Value Policy which seeks to expand our support to local communities and ‘Your Community Your Choice’ provides me with an opportunity to do just that.

This unique fund allows our communities to decide which projects should get financial support and the response showed that communities can work together to make our public places safer.

I have visited a number of last year’s successful projects and have been extremely impressed with the work done to ensure that our communities continue to be some of the safest places to live, work and visit in the UK.

Delivering Safer Neighbourhoods is one of my key priorities in my Police and Crime Plan and I am delighted that your organisations have developed projects that support this Plan.”