Keeping our neighbourhoods safe for everyone is an absolute priority. While Kingston is one of the safest boroughs in London, we know there is always more we can do to make sure everyone who lives, works, visits and studies here is - and feels - safe.

Nowhere is our commitment to improving community safety more evident than in our innovative work to tackle violence against women and girls. As part of this work, we launched our Women’s Night Safety Charter at the South West London Safer Streets conference on 22 March, to support women across South West London to feel safer when they’re out in the evening. It sets out a number of simple pledges, such as organisations demonstrating they take women’s safety at night seriously, train staff appropriately, encourage reporting by both victims or bystanders, and design safer public and work spaces.

Looking ahead to a greener future

Being a business that provides a safe and welcoming environment for women, both staff and customers, is vital and we’ve been working closely with companies across the borough to encourage them to sign up. I’ve heard from local firms that while Kingston is a very safe place, they want to do all they can to reassure their female customers of that, and demonstrate they are taking women’s safety seriously. The charter builds on the introduction of Kingston Safe Zone last September. The council, Police and Kingston Street Pastors have worked together to provide a safe space for women and girls, or anyone who is feeling vulnerable in the town centre. If you are a businesses owner interested in finding out more the Women’s Night Safety Charter, please do contact us at dsvp@kingston.gov.uk

As a leading borough in this area of work, we were really proud to host the Safer Streets conference at Kingsgate Church earlier this month. The event highlighted the partnership working that is crucial to our approach to community safety. Local authorities across South West London came together with the Police and voluntary sector organisations to share knowledge and ideas, and demonstrate that women’s safety is not something we will compromise on.

We achieve incredible things when we work together

The event reinforced the joint working between Kingston, Richmond, Merton and Wandsworth councils and the Met Police South West London which saw the partnership awarded £200,000 of government funding last year to continue its work to make the streets safer for women and girls.

Alongside the Women’s Night Safety Charter, the conference also saw the launch of a new campaign to encourage men and boys to take an active stand against violence against women and girls. The #StepUpSWLondon campaign aims to educate men and boys about unacceptable behaviours and how they can stand up to them safely and confidently. It also encourages men to become active, continuous allies by signing up for the White Ribbon Promise.

I’m immensely proud of the strong sense of community cohesion across our wonderfully diverse borough and our strong track record on community safety. Of course, there is always more we can do and through an approach rooted in partnership work, prevention and early intervention we are committed to continuing to make our borough even safer for all.