Measures to improve women's safety in Stoke-on-Trent to be introduced 'subtly'
£550 million is to be spent in the city
Last updated 25th Oct 2021
We're being told more than half a million pounds which will be used to improve the safety of women and girls in Stoke-on-Trent, will start to be spent imminently.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has managed to get the cash from the government's Safer Streets Fund. It follows the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police officer in south London earlier this year which sparked a national conversation regarding the safety of women and girls.
Round three of the Safer Streets Fund was announced by the government earlier this month and will see £550,000 invested in areas such as:
- Further installation of lighting
- More CCTV cameras across the city
- Work with schools and communities to deliver targeted educational programmes and awareness campaigns
Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Abi Brown told us: "People were really keen to share with us how they felt. I'm also very aware that whilst this is specifically focused at women and girls, it is also a wider feeling of wanting to feel safe within your community for anybody who feels a little bit vulnerable - that isn't necessarily always those who we think of.
"What we're trying to do with this is have the measures come forward in quite a subtle way. So they won't necessarily appear in a way that people will suddenly go 'wow, this has changed' but hopefully in that wider sense of things feeling a bit safer.
"I'm keen to see it happen as soon as we possibly can."