THE clock is ticking for people to apply for up to £20,000 funding to help reduce harm caused by drugs, anti-social behaviour and reoffending.

Last minute applications can be submitted to get a slice of £2 million set aside by PCC Bill Longmore for the voluntary and community sector before 2pm on Thursday, April 17.

The money should be used to reduce the harm caused by drugs, reduce anti-social behaviour and reduce reoffending.

The bids will be closely assessed and scrutinised to determine which bids can be most effective in helping the PCC achieve these objectives from the Police and Crime plan.

Mr Longmore said: “Every year we open up the grant scheme, it’s exciting to see what ideas people come forward with to improve their local area, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s clearly no different this year.

“The money we’ve given out in grants has done some incredible work in the last couple of years, and the good it does in terms of preventing crime and reducing reoffending saves the public a huge amount of money in the long term.

“For example, an independent audit of one of the initiatives we funded to reduce reoffending found that for every £1 invested from my office, it had saved the public £16.

"That’s a sound investment, and a fantastic result, which voluntary and community groups are helping us achieve.

“I said when the grants opened that I wanted more people than ever to come forward with their ideas – that hasn’t changed, and we’re looking forward to looking over all the applications for this year once applications close”.

The PCC monitors grants that are handed out to ensure they are used properly and to analyse the results they generate.

Anyone requesting more than £20,000 will have to wait until the next funding round in July.