New lighting and CCTV planned to make women and girls feel safer in Clifton Park

Safer Streets Funding to the tune of £460,000 will be spent by the South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, on improvements at four parks in the county.

The four parks - including one in each of the four boroughs - were picked after 

a public consultation focusing on experiences and feelings of safety in public places, which brought in 2,000 responses.

This highlighted a sharp drop in feelings of confidence at night-time, with parks and woodland areas identified as the areas where women felt most unsafe.

Dr Billings said: “Everyone has a right to feel safe and to be safe in their communities and I am pleased that the Government has also recognised this and is providing us with opportunities for additional funding to make public spaces safer.”

A further £70,000 was awarded to develop a county-wide communications and education campaign to target perpetrator behaviour and attitudes. 

Dr Billings added: “The clear message from the consultation work undertaken is in line with recent national headlines following the sentencing of Sarah Everard’s killer. 

“Those surveyed told us that more needs to be done to target the perpetrators, instead of asking women to change their behaviour and take precautions.

“We will be working with our partners to develop clear messaging and educational information to challenge behaviours and instigate cultural change to ensure women and girls feel safe on our streets and in public spaces.”

Rotherham Council’s cabinet member for corporate services, community safety and finance, Cllr Saghir Alam, said: “We very much welcome this funding which will enable us to support women to feel safer within Rotherham and across South Yorkshire by targeting the behaviour of perpetrators and aiming to improve feelings of safety.

“We particularly look forward to working with local groups on the trialling of the innovative new lighting designs in Clifton Park as part of this work.”