Nanouche Umeadi said women did not feel safe at bus stops late at night

WOMEN still do not feel safe on their way home from nights out in Camden, councillors warned yesterday (Monday), using their own experiences as examples.

While the murder of Sarah Everard and several other high profile cases of violence against women and girls led to vigils, marches and debates in 2021, a full council meeting was told that more was needed to reassure women heading home late at night.

Labour councillor Nanouche Umeadi said: “Often if I’m out –  I go out every now and again in Camden – in the venues I’m feeling safe, but when I’m actually leaving I don’t always feel safe. So then I’m having to take an Uber because I don’t want to be stood at the bus stop or at the tube station being… I was going to say chirps’d: Being chatted up by people that I don’t want to be speaking to.”

And her colleague Councillor Nina de Ayala Parker added: “One hundred and twenty-five women have been killed by men since Sarah Everard’s murder by a Met Police officer in 2021. The streets aren’t safe and the people who are meant to be protecting us also perpetuate violence towards women. I think a lot of the onus is often on women.

“I go out in Camden a lot but it’s the norm to make sure my friend texts me when they get home. If I don’t get a text from a friend when they get home, then my brain jumps to conclusions about their safety. Another norm is to check twice, three times, behind your shoulder if you see a man walking down the road on the same side as you, or changing which side of the road that you’re walking on if there is a man walking behind you – and pretending to be on the phone, pretending to look for your keys in your bag, or pretending that a house is, or a flat is your flat, when actually it’s not if you think that someone’s following you.”

London’s ‘Night Czar’ Amy Lamé said the onus shouldn’t be on women to change the way they behaved – that responsibility lay with men.

“In terms of women’s safety and safety for girls. We have the women’s night safety charter, the Mayor’s women’s night safety charter,” she told the meeting.

“We have over 1600 signatories across London, including many businesses in Camden. But I’ll be clear men need to change their behaviour. That is the only way women and girls will feel safer – when men change their behaviour.

“So the onus is on our brothers as our allies.”

The comments were made at an all-member meeting debate on the benefits, and downsides, of Camden’s famous night time economy.

Shaheda Rahman, one of Camden Council’s community safety managers, said that the Town Hall was “strategically directing efforts towards areas with a high concentration of evening and night time economy venues”, and cited the Camden safety hub in Camden. Town.

“It is a safe space for anyone really, specifically for women, young girls to go, patrons, people working within Camden, people visiting our residents,” she said. “If they’re on a night out and they need help, that’s the place for them to go to, and the project has proven really successful. We’re hoping to duplicate that in the south of the borough, so the next area that we’re concentrating on would be Tottenham Court Road and Holborn.”

Camden is also promoting the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme: women who are being threatened or feel in danger can ask for Angela at a bar and staff will provide help and support.

“We will be launching a mobile safety hub in Parkway [Camden Town] in December, because obviously people have said that this is what is needed,” said Ms Rahman.

“This is what they want. We’ve also altered the timings of the safety hub, so now it’s open a lot later, so when venues are closed, people can be directed to the safety hub via the bus or the actual safety hub, which is based at Labtech [Camden Market].”