Nearly half of women feel unsafe on UK streets in winter with more than a THIRD changing their route at night
ALMOST half of women feel unsafe on the UK streets in winter with more than a THIRD changing their route at night to avoid walking home.
Shocking new stats revealed around 44 per cent of women felt uneasy and threatened while making everyday journeys like commuting to work when it is darker.
A fifth of men, meanwhile, said they felt unsafe.
New research by Mitie – the country’s biggest security firm – found that people spend on average £100 extra per month on taxis, trains and buses to avoid the winter walk home.
More than 70 per cent said more must be done to improve safer streets while one in five said employers should take greater responsibility for workers’ safety outside of work.
COMMUTE SAFETY
It comes as personal safety app WalkSafe – whose downloads soared in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder in March 2021 - has teamed up with Mitie to make an enhanced version of the software for employers to provide to their workers to help keep them safe on the commute.
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Worried employees, who feel uneasy in the dark, will be able to press a button on the app, which already has more than one million users.
This will connect them to trained, round-the-clock responders, who will give them expert advice, advise them of safe spaces and notify emergency services.
Emma Kay, Founder of WalkSafe, revealed her app sees an 81 per cent increase in downloads during the winter.
She said: “I started WalkSafe to empower people to take precautionary measures to protect their own safety, something I feel strongly about after experiencing harassment in the street.
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"With Mitie, we will take WalkSafe one step further with the support of their connected control centre.”
She continued: “With app users surging since the clocks changed, we want to do everything we can to ensure people can get home safely in the dark.
"With this new partnership, we hope to revolutionise the way that employers can take care of their colleagues, ultimately making them safer.”
Jason Towse, Managing Director, Business Services, Mitie, who provide security for the Houses of Parliament, said: “Our friends, families and colleagues should all be able to travel safely, whether on transport networks or simply walking home.
"Yet violence against women and girls and minority groups is increasingly prevalent across the UK.
“A fifth of the UK’s workforce expect their employer to help get them to and from work safely and we want to help organisations protect their people.
"In developing this support in partnership with WalkSafe, we want to help tackle this epidemic and enable safer communities where we can all live and work.”
In the last five years, violence against women and girls has increased on an "epidemic scale", with the The National Police Chief’s Council seeing a 37 per cent in five years.
In the new poll – conducted by Opinium of 2,000 men and women – 51 per cent of women cited being followed by a stranger at the top of their list of fears, with more than a third worried of the threat of sexual assault.
In contrast, just under a fifth – 17 per cent - of men feared being followed by a stranger and less than one in twenty – four per cent - listed sexual assault as a concern.
Who was Sarah Everard and how did she die?
SARAH Everard was abducted, raped and murdered in March 2021 by former Met Police constable Wayne Couzens.
The 33-year-old marketing executive vanished while making her way home from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, around 9pm, sparking a huge search effort.
Detectives investigating her disappearance charged a serving Met Police officer in his 40s - later identified as Couzens.
A week after she disappeared Sarah's body was discovered in a woodland in Ashford, Kent.
Post-mortem results revealed that Sarah died from compression to the neck and that she had been raped.
At Couzen's sentencing it was revealed that the former cop had used his warrant card to lure Sarah into his car.
He claimed he was on a "Covid patrol" and used lockdown laws to stage her false arrest.
Sarah was then driven for 80 miles from London to Kent, where her body was later found.
He pleaded guilty to murdering Sarah in September 2021, having previously admitted to her kidnapping and rape.
He was handed a whole-life order for his crimes, making him the first ever British cop to be given the sentence - the harshest a judge can impose.
Couzens is unlikely to ever be granted parole and has been told that he will die in prison.
The most common changes made by women in darker months are walking a different route – 34 per cent, taking a taxi or public transport – 28 per cent - and driving a short distance to avoid walking – 24 per cent, with people spending on average an extra £100 extra a month.
More than double the number of women – 15 per cent - are prepared to miss social events to avoid walking in the dark compared to their male counterparts – just seven per cent.
It meant seven in ten – 71 per cent - people called for more to be done to improve safety on the streets.
Two thirds believe that the government and local authorities should do more to protect people while 19 per cent think employers could do more to improve safety for their colleagues.
This figure rises to over a third – 36 per cent - for people who leave the house or return home in darkness.
With the Workers’ Protection Act introduced in October, organisations are looking for extra ways to prevent harassment and create safer environments.
The WalkSafe app – founded in 2020 - is a free personal safety app providing vital information to users on a handy interactive map to make them feel safer when out.
Clear icons for different safe space types make the app easy to use and navigate, alongside other useful features, such as journey plotting and crime zone information.
Police and councils provide data to the app to help people find their way home, or simply go for a walk and feel safe.
The app has had more than one million downloads and is in 35 cities and towns across the world.
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It saw downloads soar from 2,000 to 300,000 in the week after Sarah Everard was brutally murdered on her way home in Clapham, south London in March 2021.
The partnership with Mitie develop enhanced services for the WalkSafe Pro version of the app which organisations can provide to their colleagues.
How you can get help
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a - available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
