Sheffield MP backs street light funding but insists more must be done for women to feel safe

Hallam MP Olivia Blake, who wrote to the Government in January calling for more funding for street lights in parks, spoke out after the government announced a £25 million boost to its Safer Streets Fund, for better lighting and CCTV.

Number 10 also said uniformed and plain clothes officers would be involved in pilot schemes to identify predatory and suspicious offenders on the streets around clubs and bars at night to help protect women.

Government action was announced following the outcry at the murder of 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard, who disappeared and was killed as she walked home after leaving a friend’s house in Clapham Common, London.

MP Blake lobbied the Government when Sheffield campaign group Our Bodies Our Streets launched a petition, signed by 3,000 people, calling for better lighting in parks to help women feel safer.

The MP said: “After constituents from campaign group Our Bodies Our Streets got in touch with me, I wrote to the Government to call for more funding for lighting in parks in Hallam and across the country.

“So whilst the Government’s announcement is welcome in this regard, much more needs to be done to not only ensure cuts are fully reversed and local authorities have the funds to make our streets safer, but also to tackle the root structural causes to ensure women feel able to report incidents of sexual harassment and assault and know they will be taken seriously.”

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