Mayor of London pushes public safety for women and girls

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan hopes to put fresh momentum behind the drive to make public spaces safer for women, girls and gender diverse people, with new guidance for the real estate sector. The report – Safety in Public Space; women, girls and gender diverse people – has been published as part of Khan’s Good Growth by Design programme, which promotes quality and inclusion in the built environment. The report calls for “actively including women, girls and gender diverse people’s experiences, needs and realities in all stages of the design process”. It provides a framework of questions for those involved in the delivery of public spaces to use to help achieve this (see below). Breaking point Manijeh Verghese, Mayor’s Design Advocate and head of pubic engagement at the Architectural Association, writes in her foreword that “the murders of Sabina Nessa, Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry and far too many others” had further “cemented the fact that safety for women in public space had reached a breaking point”. “However, women, girls and gender diverse people are not victims of the city. Instead, the city is missing out on our knowledge and expertise,” Verghese writes. The report says that safety is experienced on a spectrum from mild inconvenience, such as having to walk a longer route home to feel safe or having to carry a buggy up steps, through to extreme danger. These daily inconveniences “send the message that public space is not ‘for’ you” and must be taken as seriously as more overt gender-based violence, it argues. Ellie Cosgrave, author of the report and director of urban design practice Publica’s community interest company and research, said: “Making meaningful progress towards gender inclusive, safer public spaces requires our sector to understand the core issues of gender inclusion, be aware of what has worked in the past, be able to experiment on projects, and track material impact on the ground. I believe this report is a huge step in the right direction to providing the insight and support needed to make a practical difference to projects right now.” Pilot projects The report is seen as phase one of the initiative, with phase two set to apply its framework of guiding questions to ongoing live public realm projects as part of design reviews by Mayor’s Design Advocates. The third phase will draw together best practice examples from London to support planners, architects, engineers, designers, developers and commissioners of public realm. Cosgrave said the phase one guidance would also be used to shape a series of pilot projects delivered in partnership with developers, local authorities and communities, as part of a safety campaign launched by Publica in September. The campaign has the support of landed estates Grosvenor, Portman and Howard de Walden, and developers Helical, GPE and Almacantar, as well as a large number of London BIDs. Read the full report here >> Practical questions to help shape delivery of inclusive public realm Project set-up 1. Is project leadership addressing exclusion? 2. Is the project team gender-informed and diverse? 3. Is the project budget appropriate? Understanding 4. Are you practising inclusive engagement? 5. Is your data collection process adopting inclusivity principles? Making 6. Are you adopting genuine co-design with women, girls and gender diverse people? 7. Are your design features gender-informed? 8. Are you considering diversity and inclusion issues beyond the site boundary? Using 9. Are appropriate policies and strategies in place to support women’s safety in the longer term? 10. Is there an agreed approach to continuing community programming in the space? For more on this topic in practice, see next week’s EG. To send feedback, e-mail julia.cahill@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGJuliaC or @EGPropertyNews Image © Bryan Smith/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock