Council wins £180,000 EU cash to combat hate crime

NOTTINGHAM is to receive more than £180,000 from the European Union to tackle hate crime.

The money will go towards establishing a specialist officer at the city council for two years.

Nottingham City Council has prioritised hate crime because it wants to encourage people to report it, as well as reduce repeat victimisation. Its target to reduce repeat victimisation by 20 percent is currently not being met.

Councillor Toby Neal said: “Hate crime will not be tolerated in Nottingham and this funding will strengthen efforts that are already under way between partners to effectively tackle the issue and provide support to victims wherever it rears its head.

“This will fund a post for two years which will co-ordinate a range of activity. This will include establishing clearer ways for organisations to signpost people towards appropriate support, continuing training to help people understand how best to respond if they witness hate crime, raising awareness among local organisations of how to tackle the issue and looking at ways to prevent repeat offending. The aim is to better equip local people and communities to work together to challenge intolerance, provide a wider range of options for victims to ensure better outcomes and reduce incidents by challenging offenders’ behaviour.”

Pete Rogers, of Nottingham Citizens, welcomed the plans and encouraged more groups in the city to get involved. He said: “Our research has led us to believe that we need a whole-society approach to tackling hatred and that would be best served by establishing an independent civil society forum which would hold agencies in the city to account on tackling hate.”

Superintendent Andrea Baxter, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We hope this funded partnership project will help us to provide even more support to victims and to tackle hate crime.”