South Yorkshire crime commissioner to spend £460k on park safety

Dr Alan Billings said making the streets safe for women and girls was a "top priority"

Improved lighting and CCTV are to be installed in parks in South Yorkshire in an effort to help make women and girls feel safer.

South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings said he was investing £460,000 on new safety measures in four locations.

The money has come from the government's Safer Street Fund.

Dr Billings said: "Making the streets a safer place for women and girls is a top priority for me."

He added: "Everyone has a right to feel safe and to be safe in their communities and I am pleased that the government has also recognised this and is providing us with opportunities for additional funding to make public spaces safer."

The four locations - Dearne Valley Park, in Barnsley, Edenthorpe Park, in Doncaster, Clifton Park, in Rotherham, and Ponderosa Park in Sheffield - were chosen following a public consultation.

• More stories from across Yorkshire

Rotherham's Clifton Park will also see improvements

In January, campaign group Our Bodies Our Streets launched a petition urging the council to do more about lighting in its park's to improve women's feeling of safety.

A sculpture designed to promote women's safety created by the group was destroyed in an arson attack in Ponderosa Park in August.

Dr Billings, who secured £550,00 in total, said he was also spending £70,000 in an educational campaign to "target perpetrator behaviour and attitudes" and £15,000 on further consultation work around safety.

"The clear message from the consultation work undertaken is in line with recent national headlines following the sentencing of Sarah Everard's killer," Dr Billings said.

"Those surveyed told us that more needs to be done to target the perpetrators, instead of asking women to change their behaviour and take precautions."

A further bid has been submitted to fund increased policing levels in Sheffield city centre on weekends.

Jenny Llewellyn, from Our Bodies Our Streets said: "We are happy to see that our campaign for Safer Parks After Dark has made a difference, especially following the destruction of our original sculpture in the Ponderosa."

She said she hoped the three initiatives would help "centre women and marginalised gender groups" and "restore trust".

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail] or send video here.