Women on Teesside feel ‘unsafe’ after dark, survey finds

On one evening in Middlesbrough, the BBC spoke to young women about how they stay safe after a survey by the area’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) revealed that most on Teesside feel unsafe in public places after dark.

For Zoe and her friend Beth, who are in the town for a meal together, they have similar practices.

Zoe describes using her phone or texting a friend so that people know she has “someone who cares” about where she is.

The safety survey was commissioned by Cleveland PCC Matt Storey as part of work aimed at tackling violence against women and girls.

Almost 2,800 women and girls living in the Cleveland Police force area responded and 87% of them said they felt unsafe in town centres at night.

Beth shares her location on her phone with her partner, so he always knows where she is and would rather pick her up from a night out than for her to make her own way home.

When the 32-year-old was a student at Teesside University, she would stay close to the Boro Angels – a volunteer-led organisation supporting people on a night.

She says as a woman you feel “quite vulnerable” on an evening on your own and she would avoid being out by herself after dark.

“If you do see a gang of men – you feel uncomfortable and I’d avoid them at all costs.

“I’d try and contact someone on my phone so if they approach me, I’m already on the phone to someone.”

When I ask if she would go to Albert Park in central Middlesbrough at night on her own, the most named place by women in the survey for being unsafe, she says “absolutely not”.