Public meeting to be held in Londonderry to discuss ideas to make women feel safer

A public meeting is being held in Londonderry tonight to discuss and gather ideas on how to make women in the city feel safer.

Police patrols have already been upped following a recent spate of sexually motivated attacks on women in the city.

The aim of tonight's meeting at St Columb’s Hall is to hear ideas from women, girls, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Alliance for Choice Derry will then use the feedback to start a safety campaign.

Goretti Horgan from the group said, “There’s just so much that we could be doing that would make women’s lives safer – that’s what the conference is about.”

“It’s about bringing together all kinds of ideas. If everyone gets together then there’s a much better chance we can sort out what we need to be doing to end this epidemic of violence.”

“The point is to let everybody’s voice be heard, so that it’s not just a small group trying to figure it out.”

Cassie Jane Buckley is from Foyle Women’s Information Network which will be attending the meeting.

The group has been working to find out how women feel in the wake of the attacks.

She said, “We put a call out on our social media that asked ‘What practically do you need to feel safe in your city?’.

“We knew the PSNI were increasing police presence but there was still a feeling of not feeling safe.”

“We’ve gathered all of these ideas from women. Some of these include implementing the Ask for Angela scheme across all licensed premises, looking at lighting and CCTV in the city, and looking at pro-active checks on taxis.”

The information was presented to a council meeting last week.

Tonight’s public meeting gets underway at 7pm.