John Hayward-Cripps is Chief Executive Officer at Neighbourhood Watch Network, one of our partners in the Creating Safer Spaces project. In this guest post, he shares his view that public spaces should be designed to connect communities in order to make them safer.
There's no doubt that crime in public spaces, specifically on our streets, is a problem in the UK. In a survey of over 25,000 people, we were shocked to find that of those that had experienced a crime in the past year, street harassment was the crime most people experienced (36%) and over four-fifths (82%) of all respondents worry about street harassment as a national issue. These worrying findings show we must change attitudes to crimes and behaviours that have become ingrained in our everyday culture and as part of this, review how we're designing public spaces to address this endemic issue.
Established over 40 years, Neighbourhood Watch is the largest crime prevention voluntary movement in England and Wales, with around 2.3 million member households and 90,000 Coordinators. While the foundations of our organisation are preventing crime and reducing the fear of crime, our remit is much wider - supporting welfare and wellbeing, as well as increasing community cohesion.
With this broader remit, we were delighted to get involved in the Marshalls Creating Safer Spaces report, challenging those responsible for the public realm to join us in expanding their focus and thinking about shared spaces in a more integrated way.
As the Marshalls white paper highlights, making shared spaces safer is multifaceted. Of course, it's about removing structural elements that might enable someone to hide from view or planning a space to reduce opportunities for street harassment, but flipping the problem, it's also about developing areas that support wellbeing and encourage people to come together.
Connecting communities
Our approach to crime reduction has always been about creating connected and active communities; naturally, spaces that allow this connection to happen physically help foster this ethos.
This method is something we've seen first-hand in Sheffield with the previous winner of our Neighbour of the Year campaign. Previously, the area between two tower blocks was a haven for low-level criminality, with antisocial behaviour and drug use a common occurrence. With some funding from the campaign with Co-op Insurance, residents created a pop-up park and a space that's used almost daily by the neighbours, including for barbecues and parties in the summer. In turn, levels of crime, as well as loneliness and isolation, have reduced, while community togetherness has gone up.
As this example shows – making pleasant, usable spaces can profoundly affect a community, including rates of crime.
Making conscious choices
Up and down the country, there are public spaces and new developments where factors such as crime, accessibility, aesthetics, wellbeing, sustainability and cost, for example, are addressed simultaneously in an integrated way. However, such projects are the exception and not the default.
Our call is for those involved in the design and development of public spaces and those who approve such schemes to consciously consider safety and community wellbeing more thoroughly.
By reviewing the principles of the Marshalls whitepaper, we can make significant steps in creating not only safer spaces but areas that contribute to neighbourhood cohesion and wellness.
More information on Creating Safer Spaces
The Creating Safer Spaces whitepaper, including a full summary of the research, is now available to download. As well as the whitepaper, you can now book the Creating Safer Spaces CPD, giving you the chance to more deeply consider public safety as part of your design. The session lasts an hour and can be delivered online or in-person.