Cabinet member Tessa Jowell was in Southend today to launch a new initiative aimed at stamping out antisocial behaviour.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, was at a balloon launch outside the Odeon cinema, in Southend High Street, to mark more funding to tackle the problems under the Respect agenda.

Respect is a Government strategy to tackle bad behaviour and nurture a culture of respect.

Simon Ford, Southend's crime and disorder reduction partnership manager, said: "It is extremely pleasing Southend will receive extra funding to deal with this important issue.

"Funding of such an issue would previously have been seen as an unaffordable luxury, but we are confident by promoting respect at every level, we will soon see knock-on effects on the community and antisocial behaviour as a whole.

"The aim in the long term is for antisocial behaviour to be rare and tackled effectively - which, if successful, would have the effect of saving the town money in other areas, such as the cleaning up graffiti and litter."