New guidance launched to create safer parks for women and girls

Practical guidelines which will help to make parks and green spaces safer for women and girls across the UK have been launched at a conference organised by the University of Leeds.  

The document, aimed at park managers, local authorities, police and community groups, is a partnership between the Mayor of West Yorkshire, the University of Leeds, Make Space for Girls and Keep Britain Tidy.

The organisations involved hope decision-makers will now review all their parks in partnership with the police and engage with women and girls specifically on safety, ensuring that those who do not currently use the parks are included.

The conference follows a recent study of a cross-section of more than a hundred women and girls from West Yorkshire which found that most believed their local parks to be unsafe. 

Dr Anna Barker, an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice & Criminology in the University of Leeds’  School of Law, led the original research and organised the  two-day conference entitled Women and Girls' Safety in Parks: Lessons from Research and Practice.

She said: “In Britain, women are three times less likely than men to feel safe in a park during the day.   

“This is worse after dark, when as many as four out of five women in Britain say that they would feel unsafe walking alone in a park, compared to two out of five men.  

“All these factors mean that women and girls are less likely to use parks than men and boys, a situation which has a significant impact on their lives. Our guidelines, covering ten principles for design and management, can enable decision-makers to enact change.”  

Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, said: “It’s critical that we understand what makes women and girls feel safe or unsafe across our green spaces and what needs to change to make them feel able to use their local park.”

“Our own research already shows that 70% of people in urban areas do not have access to good quality green space, rising to 75.8% in the most deprived areas. When coupled with women’s concerns about using those few green spaces they have access to, it means there is a real inequality. We must tackle it collectively, and as a priority.

“We are proud to be a part of this important and much needed project.”

The Safer Parks Project was funded by the Mayor and UKRI.

Among those attending were representatives from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, Women in Sport, and Make Space for Girls.