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Our recommendations to improve safety:
Promote later opening hours for a range of businesses in alignment with Council policies, with a greater consideration of safety benefits and the consideration of the night time work force
Improve street lighting through well-considered interventions that respond to the local area, prioritising locations that night time users tell us are problematic, ensuring they are creative and welcoming as well as practical
Encourage, where appropriate, spill out spaces of cafés, restaurants and bars onto back streets to improve activity and contribute to a sense of safety (through table and chair use where practical)
Work with local businesses to consider practical solutions to improve perceptions of safety at night, such as locking gates, placing bins in appropriate places and ensuring walkways are kept clear
An enhanced ‘place-based’ approach to existing Council and Police joint working to identify crime hotspots, consider more CCTV, tackle Violence Against Women and Girls and provide greater police presence and faster response rate in areas of need
Police, Council and businesses to work together to reduce crime through initiatives such as Ask for Angela / Wave training, Good Night Out campaign, White Ribbon and Women’s Night Safety Charter, continued torch walks, with aspirations for Purple Flag status
All new drinking establishments to require sexual harassment training provided by the Council when applying for a licence, and encourage existing establishments to undertake training too
Council to partner with external organisations to offer bystander, personal safety and self-defence training
Enhanced communications and outreach support at night offering help to rough sleepers, people suffering mental health problems and women escaping domestic abuse
Wandsworth has signed up to the Mayor of London’s Women’s Night Safety Charter, with the aim of making London a city where all women feel confident and welcome at night.
To support the Charter, any organisation that operates at night can sign-up and pledge to the below commitments:
Nominate a champion in your organisation who actively promotes women’s night safety
Demonstrate to staff and customers that your organisation takes women’s safety at night seriously, for example through a communications campaign
Remind customers and staff that London is safe, but tell them what to do if they experience harassment when working, going out or travelling
Encourage reporting by victims and bystanders as part of your communications campaign
Train staff to ensure that all women who report are believed
Train staff to ensure that all reports are recorded and responded to
Design your public spaces and work places to make them safer for women at night
This engagement phase has finished
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