Penzance Council has decided to pay for the town's anti-social behaviour case worker after learning that Cornwall Council funding will dry up.

The town council's immediate pledge of £3,000 will keep the worker in their role until the end of May 2020, and £30,000 has been allocated to secure the post for a further 12 months.

If the money had not been put up by the town council, the scope of the role would have stretched to cover the wider West Cornwall area including Hayle, St Ives, Camborne, Pool and Redruth rather than focusing on Penzance alone.

Penzance Council will now be meeting 90 per cent of the cost with Cornwall Council funding the remaining 10 per cent.

Earlier this year town and Cornwall Councillors agreed to jointly fund the new role in order to improve safety in the town.

The town council says that improving community safety and tackling anti-social behaviour is one of its main priorities.

Councillors have played a key role in the Safer Penzance partnership which has brought together organisations to tackle anti-social behaviour, alcohol and drug use and domestic abuse.

The town's case worker Dorian Thomas has worked closely with police since taking up the role.

He has helped to deal with persistent offenders, with a focus on evidence-gather and building cases to take to court for enforcement orders to be issued.

Figures from the Safer Cornwall partnership show a 13 per cent fall in recorded crime since Dorian started, and an 18 per cent reduction in anti social behaviour in Penzance.

There has also been a significant reduction in theft offences, criminal damage and violence with injury and a fall in anti-social behaviour linked to street drinking of 23 per cent.

Councillor Nicole Broadhurst, mayor of Penzance, said: “Local residents and business owners rightly expect Penzance Council to do all it can to work with partners to help deal with this problem.

“We recognise the pressures on Cornwall’s Council’s budgets and I am delighted that members of Penzance Council have voted to increase our share of the funding for this vital post.

“This decision will enable our town to continue to benefit from the support provided by Dorian and we look forward to seeing further reductions in the number of antisocial behaviour incidents”.

Funding for the post will come from the Council’s Devolution Fund."