National award for Warrington PCSO

WARRINGTON PCSO Tony Spruce, who helped set up a boxing club to tackle anti-social behaviour, has won a national award.

Tony, who’s based in Latchford and Westy area of town, won the Outstanding Work in Community Safety Award at the Street Games National Conference.

The award was received for the work done in setting up Westy Boxing Club in Warrington.

Spruce (pictured far left) has worked with a number of community partners to make the boxing club a success and they all collected the award at the event at Warwick University.

Westy Boxing Club has been running in the south of Warrington since 2015.

“We set up the club because of anti-social behaviour in the area which was mainly fire related,” said Spruce.

“We received some funding from Street Games to set up the boxing club and within six months we had seen a 68 percent reduction in the anti-social behaviour.

“Now we run sessions for various ages each Wednesday and are now getting around thirty children at the club each week.”

The national award recognises the achievements of a project that has benefited young people and the community in tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.

“I like to attend the conference each year because they have some great workshops and great ideas for community engagement,” added Spruce.

“But it was an amazing feeling to win and I wasn’t expecting it. We were up against projects from across the UK and were all buzzing afterwards. It shows that partnerships in the community really do work.

“The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has also agreed to fund the club for another year which is fantastic, and there have also been another two boxing clubs set up in Warrington off the back of this success.”

Cheshire PCC David Keane said: “I would like to congratulate Tony and everyone involved in this project for the fantastic work that has been done. They are fully deserving of the award.

“Westy Boxing Club is funded through the Safer Communities Fund, which I set up to encourage our communities to take a leading role in the prevention and reduction of crime and to support us in having a police service connected to our local communities.

“I am proud to be able to support Westy Boxing Club and I fully support the aims of increasing both community cohesion and the promotion of positive activity to support young people.”