Most women in region feel unsafe after dark

Nine in 10 women in the West Midlands feel unsafe walking alone at night, a survey has suggested.

The YouGov poll, commissioned by Active Travel England (ATE), comes as a plan has been announced to give councils in England new guidance on how to design safer streets.

ATE's project will support the government's Safer Streets mission and a goal to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade.

The proportion of women who said they didn't feel safe on the streets after dark was higher in the West Midlands than the UK-wide figure of 88%.

Seven in 10 women nationwide said they had changed their route to avoid walking in the dark in the past year, and inadequate lighting, poorly maintained paths and fears about antisocial behaviour were cited as the biggest problems.

The survey polled 1094 women across the UK, of whom 90 were based in the West Midlands.

ATE's new guidance will be published this year, alongside training sessions for local authorities. It will set out how councils can redesign neighbourhoods with women and girls in mind, including installing better lighting, improving visibility, creating better walking routes and expanding CCTV.

Local authorities will be able to use part of ATE's £626m funding pot, announced last year, to improve lighting, crossings, routes and other safety measures.

Local transport minister Lilian Greenwood said the figures showed "just how much work there is to be done".

"No one should worry about getting to their destination safely after dark," she said. "This programme is turning conversations into real change by working directly with the councils who design our streets."

Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls and MP for Birmingham Yardley, described the issue as a "national emergency".

"I welcome this work to design streets that make women feel safer, shifting responsibility away from women and onto the spaces and behaviours that put them at risk."

Chris Boardman, national active travel commissioner, called the findings "appalling".

"For too long, we have designed streets that don't work for women and girls," he said. "Everyone should feel safe getting around and our job is to help make that happen."

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