I welcome news that funding provided by the Home Office to Bridgend County Borough Council will be used to make streets in the borough safer.
The Safer Streets Fund has had an extra £50 million taking the total allocated by the UK Government to £120m nationally. This money will be used to make streets safer for all, including women and girls, by providing additional CCTV cameras, better street lighting and other similar initiatives.
I understand that South Wales Police has been allocated £1.5m, with Bridgend getting £750K. Some of this money will be used to install intercoms which people can use to directly contact emergency services. These “Street help” points will help keep women and girls safe in our town centre.
New CCTV cameras will be installed at various points in the borough, plus the updating of lighting in underpasses and other areas where people feel vulnerable. Women and girls have been shamefully targeted in a number of high-profile incidents across the UK. I applaud Home Secretary Priti Patel’s support for these initiatives.
I welcome this first step towards ensuring women and girls are safe from violence and assault in public, however, this must not be the only action taken. A solution to keeping women and girls safe on our streets will come from a range of measures. I look forward to these additional measures being introduced in line with the consultation on Violence Against Women and Girls.
The Safer Streets Funding for Bridgend is a promising start, nonetheless, more action will be needed to make our streets safer for all.
