A COMMUNITY Crime Fighter from Caerleon used a £1,000 grant to promote PACT meetings in his area.

Tim Forshaw, 50, wanted to get more people attending meetings and a wider range of issues raised to help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in Caerleon.

As a voluntary Community Crime Fighter he aims to form a bridge between the local people and the police and council.

He heard he could apply for funding from the Home Office during a crime fighter training course in Chester in April and teamed up with fellow Caerleon crime busters Paul Huntley and Marilyn Custard to put together a bid for a grant.

They received £1,000 in May and, with an additional £300 from Newport council, used the money to pay for an advertisement and article in the Caerleon Community Times, distributing 2,000 telephone directories with useful numbers to vulnerable people and placing posters, a sandwich board and a banner around the village promoting the next PACT meeting.

Their work has had an immediate impact, with 44 people attending their last meeting in September, 63 percent more than the 27 who went before their campaign.

They still have £350 left to continue promoting PACT.

Mr Forshaw, who first got involved in local crime issues when he helped police and the council fight with a graffiti problem in Caerleon in 2004, said: “We’d found it was the same people coming to meetings and the same issues being raised so we wanted to raise the profile of PACT because we knew there must be more issues causing concern in Caerleon.

“We thought a lot of the more vulnerable people didn’t know they could have an influence on the local policing priorities, but they can.”

The next PACT meeting in Caerleon will be on January 25 at Caerleon Village Hall.