More than £92,000 cash seized from criminals has been handed out this year for community projects throughout Cheshire.

Police and Crime Commissioner John Dwyer had urged local community groups and businesses to apply to his community cash-back fund over the Christmas period.

He told Friday’s meeting of Cheshire’s Police and Crime Panel: “The fund distributes money seized from the Proceeds of Crime Act with each of Cheshire's nine local policing units allocated £10,000 from the fund.

“The aim was for local residents and businesses to work with their neighbourhood policing teams on projects to improve their community.

“The application window closed in late January and I received a total of 119 applications seeking £362,709 in funding.”

He said after all the applications had been assessed, 38 were successful and a total of £92,288.57 was awarded for projects across the county ‘and those communities will start seeing the benefits of that investment’.