Tracy Brabin (By our own design: this is how we can make Britain’s parks safe for women, 13 May) highlights the problems experienced by women in public spaces; but these places should be safe for everyone.
Children, young men and elderly people are almost, if not as much, at risk. Tracy talks about better lighting and “escape routes”, neither of which would be helpful if there was no one around to respond. Once upon a time there were park keepers – famously feared by miscreants – but the holy grail of saving public money has resulted in seriously reduced funding for such roles and for community policing. So, instead, we have to pick up the tab for the damage done by rape, assault and murder.
This is an issue for our streets as well as our green spaces. Start with serious investment in building strong communities, educating all young people to care, respect and look out for each other – and provide families with safe homes and safe areas in which to live.
Make journeys to school and recreation safe. Work to get knife and drug crime eliminated. These are massive tasks because of the steady erosion in resources for health, education and social structures. But if we don’t start now, then the issues that Tracy raises will become even more just a drop in the ocean.
Cynthia Roberts
Alderney, Guernsey
• Tracy Brabin writes good sense about women and parks: it is urgent that women are safer in parks and public spaces, it is urgent that they feel safer and so freer to enjoy life and leisure without anxiety, and it is right that to achieve this we need to listen to the lived experience of girls and women, and to take action on the conclusions that we draw from it.
I would like to see a way of involving boys and young men in the conversation. The long-term aim should be the reduction of the threat posed by them, and making men aware of what the female experience is in public spaces.
Learning how to fashion safer environments, learning how to intervene effectively but respectfully when danger threatens, and learning why it matters to live in a less threatening world is a high priority for generations to come.
Stephen Oliver
Normandy, France
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