Help to make night-time safer in Abingdon and Didcot

Residents are being asked to help make areas of Abingdon and Didcot safer at night.

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils want to hear from anyone who has felt unsafe in either town on a night out, or when returning there after an evening out elsewhere, such as Oxford.

The two councils are working with Oxford City Council who have been awarded £426,000 from the Government’s Safer Streets scheme to introduce measures to help prevent violence against women and girls travelling in and out of Oxford at night. 

Didcot and Abingdon are two of the main areas revellers return to after nights out in Oxford.  Any measures introduced would not only help those arriving home but could also support people who enjoy a night out locally and those who work in the evening and have to walk home in the dark.

Have your say now by completing the online survey at southandvale.gov.uk/saferstreets.  Responses are open until midnight on Friday 14 January.

Cllr Helen Pighills, Cabinet Member for Healthy Communities at Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “While Abingdon is a very safe town, we want to identify any areas where people don’t feel as safe as they should and what we could do to improve things.  It’s important that women and girls in particular feel safe on a night out or when walking through the town when they are returning home.”

Cllr Maggie Filipova-Rivers, Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing at South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “Ensuring people feel safe on a night out is very important, so I’m very pleased that we will be asking people what improvements they want to see in Didcot.  If you have felt unsafe at night in the town, whether during a night out or on your way home, please take part in our survey and let us know what changes you’d like to see.”

Notes for editors: 

Funding for safety improvements in Oxford, Didcot and Abingdon comes from the Government’s Safer Streets scheme which is providing £23.5m for police and local authorities to make streets safer for women and girls.