UKP260,000 BOOST TO TACKLE STREET THEFT AND DRUGS PROBLEMS

PROJECTS in Oldham were handed UKP260,000 today to tackle rising street
crime by driving drug dealers out of their neighbourhoods.

The town's crime and disorder reduction partnership will receive the funds
to distribute to groups who run front-line schemes to cut drug use.

The money is a slice of the Home Office's UKP70 million Communities Against
Drugs fund, which is in the second of its three years of operation.

All the projects awarded money aim to break the link between Class A drugs
and crime by offering treatment and support to drug-takers.

Police work alongside the groups to break up illicit drugs markets, disrupt
the activities of known dealers and tackle the stolen goods market that
funds drug habits.

All local partnerships will receive the same share of UKP50 million of the
fund as they were given in the financial year that ended in March, 2002

But crime-fighting partnerships in Greater Manchester will receive an
additional UKP2.4 million, allocated largely on the basis of high levels of
street robbery.

The Home Office is urging local crime-fighting partnerships to make tackling
street crime a priority by funding community backed initiatives.

They should include: high visibility policing in drug hotspots, supporting
neighbourhood and street wardens, schemes for prolific offenders and support
for victims' groups.

John Denham, a home office minister, said: "Class A drugs and crime are
clearly linked. Tackling them both is key to ending the cycle of drug
dependency and criminal activity that ruins lives and wrecks communities."

"By helping the police and residents strengthen their local communities, we
are determined to break links between drugs and crime, and make our streets
safer places."

"Whether it's CCTV, warden schemes, work with drug using offenders, or
direct intervention against suppliers, we want police to have the tools they
need to take action."