Cumberland City Council will be putting the safety of women and girls first with plans to revamp infrastructure and amenities in public spaces under the Safer Cities: Her Way Program.
As part of the State Government’s $30-million Safer Cities Program over the next two years, ten councils across New South Wales have been allocated $1 million dollars to trial place-based approaches to improve women, girls’ and gender diverse people’s perception of safety while moving and travelling within the city.
Council will host a series of community engagement sessions in early 2023 to understand where women and girls feel unsafe and co-design interventions in public spaces and transport hubs across Cumberland City
Cumberland City Council Mayor Lisa Lake welcomed the funding saying all residents deserve to feel safe in their community.
“Women sometimes experience public spaces differently to men and will often change their behaviour to protect themselves in public, but we don’t want the women in Cumberland to feel unsafe while living or working in our community,” she said.
“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their neighbourhood and with close to 50 percent of the population being female, this funding is so important to ensure that all of our residents feel safe and secure as they move around, enter or leave the Cumberland Local Government Area.”
The program aims to increase the perception of safety for all women and girls by improving their access to public spaces, streets and open spaces, as well as offer an opportunity to have their say in how local places are designed and managed to enable them to move freely and alone in their community.
Council is currently assessing and reviewing locations of concern for women in Cumberland City which includes public spaces, amenity blocks and streets around train stations, bus stops, carparks and alleyways.
