HullBID Radio system tunes in to major donation from city centre traders

Kathryn Shillito and Matthew Grove with Bob Carver (left) and Dave Green.

THE fight against crime in the city centre and surrounding area has been boosted by a donation of £22,000 from organisers of the non-operational Hull City Retail Crime Partnership (HCRCP).

Leaders of the group have split the money 50-50 between the radio system which HullBID operates for city centre businesses and the Humberside Police radio service in other areas of the city.

Kathryn Shillito, HullBID City Centre Manager, said: “We are delighted and grateful to accept this very generous offer and we can confirm the funds will go to support the BID radio system by paying for additional handsets, earpieces, batteries and repairs.”

Matthew Grove, the Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “I am very appreciative of this gesture by the HCRCP and I was keen to go and see them personally to thank them and to talk to them about how we use these funds.”

Dave Green, who was Acting Chairman and Treasurer of the HCRCP, said the donation had been made possible as a result of the dedication of a number of people who operated city centre business over the years including Ted Johnston, Bob Carver, Mike May of Combat Clothing and Paul Featherby and the late Dave Featherby of Duncans Gunmakers.

Dave said: “We took over the radio scheme in 2006 and ran it until 2010. We built it up and put in maximum effort to keep it running. We had 135 radios operating within a three mile radius of the city centre so that all of the radio holders were in communication with each other.

“When the service ended the money remained in the bank. It was accumulated from businesses within the BID jurisdiction and outside and by distributing it in this way we can make sure that all those businesses will benefit.”

Kathryn Shillito said the current HullBID radio system has expanded to provide more than 200 handsets which link users directly with Humberside Police, Civic 1 and the BID Support Officers.

She added that the radio has been a key tool in a partnership approach which has delivered a big reduction in four categories of crime in the city centre between April 2009 and March 2015. Shop theft was down 26 per cent, criminal damage fell by 65 per cent, theft from the person dropped by 67 per cent and theft from vehicles reduced by 71 per cent.

Kathryn said: “The radio system is one of BID’s great success stories of the last five years and we recognise that it has its roots in the excellent service which was operated so effectively by the HCRCP. We are committed to building on their hard work and this donation will help us to do that.”