Funding Applications made to Nithsdale Community Safety Fund

Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Policy and Resources Committee agreed on 3 December 2013 to allocate up to £181k from Dumfries and Galloway Police and Fire and Rescue Reserves to establish a Community Safety Fund, to be administered by the Council’s Community and Customer Services Committee.
The fund is distributed, following criteria, to the four geographical areas of the Region, with Nithsdale Community Fund having a total of £71,495, of which £53,347 remains available.
Awards from this fund are limited to a maximum of £2k per application on a 50% match-funding basis. The third round for application to this fund closed on 30 September 2015 when two requests for funding were received, Committee Members will meet on 3rd February to discuss these:
Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes have applied for funding of £1,000 to provide advanced rider training to volunteer motorcyclists. This allocation would be towards the total cost of the project which amounts to £45,211 to be obtained from additional funding and grants from other sources.
Dumfries and Galloway Blood Bikes is a charitable organisation set up by local volunteers to deliver essential blood and urgent medical supplies out of hours (6pm – 6am) between hospitals and healthcare sites in South West Scotland and occassionally beyond.
The request made to the Community Safety Fund is to provide funding towards the training of riders to the highest standards, which is now a requirement of the National Association of Blood Bikes. It is hoped that by rolling out the training to all volunteers now and in the future, it will ensure that riders are safer and consistent in their approach to delivering this service as well as enhancing their own safety and that of other road users.
In addition to the above application, the Fund has received an application from the successful Trusted Traders scheme to purchase defibrillators to be carried in all three of the HandyVan vehicles covering Dumfries and Galloway.
120 traders have so far signed up to the D&G HandyVan service which provides a register of traders from the home improvement sector and ensures home owners have a choice when it comes to choosing a reliable trader to work on their property.
The scheme supports older, rurally isolated and vulnerable individuals, many of whom experience poor health. Installing defibrillators into the vehicles would extend the equipment available to fitters to give emergency help should the situation arise when on duty, either on the road or within people’s homes.
D&G HandyVan fitters would be trained to the appropriate standard to operate the equipment and in covering such a vast, rural area of the region it is hoped that should an incident happen they would be in a position to offer help. With appropriate publicity across the region the general public would be advised that when they see the van they are able to call on their help should they need to.
Councillor Ted Thompson, Chair of Nithsdale Area Committee said: “Dumfries and Galloway is one of the safest places to live in Scotland and the Community Safety Partnership aims to maintain that safety and security in our region. Their aim is to make people feel safer in their neighbourhoods and to reduce the number of people who are victims of crime or anti-social behaviour. One of the Council’s top priorities is to protect our most vulnerable people through keeping our communities safe, and this funding should ensure that this happens.”