Tackling Violence

TACKLING VIOLENCE

The ‘Safer Parks Strategy’ is focused on a small group of public spaces and parks within the region of Northumbria. Its aim is to develop an overall review of the existing lighting as well as detailed observations and recommendations for improvements that could be scaled up for other parks in the area

By Elizabeth Harrison and Paul Brownbridge

Stainton Lighting Design Services (SLDS) was commissioned by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) Northumbria to undertake a lighting assessment review, as part of the Safer Parks project.

Police and crime commissioner for Northumbria Kim McGuinness’s vision for this project is improving lives by making public spaces – specifically parks – safer and more inclusive for women, girls, and marginalised groups.

SLDS assessed the existing lighting provision within six parks identified across Northumbria and, where appropriate, made recommendations for improvements to provide a safer, more secure and inclusive environment in line with the vision for the project.

The review was carried out as part of a package of interventions funded by the Home Office ‘Safer Streets Fund’ [1]. This is aimed to encourage earlier reporting, increase data and understanding of the problem, solve the issue by co-designing solutions with owners of public parks and use evidence of what works to scale the solution via a public health approach.

The drive for this came from the Home Office’s ‘Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls’ strategy published in July 2021, which was informed by a call for evidence [2] The government heard directly from the public, amidst a national outpouring of grief because of the tragic murder of Sarah Everard.

More than 180,000 responses were received, with comments making grim reading. A select few are as follows:

• ‘I didn’t feel safe. In fact, I was terrified I carried on walking – I had no choice –but I picked up the pace and clutched my keys in my fist. It was a horrid experience, but by no means an extraordinary one.’

• ‘I don’t think anybody realises the impact [of these crimes] on younger girls and women. I had never felt so lost in my entire life at the time of the abuse. I thought my life would never be the same again. I had devastatingandoverwhelming feelings of distress and desperation. I had suicidal thoughts, I didn’t eat for months, and still have a lot of suppressed feelings.’

• ‘Some forms of violence against women and girls are so commonplace that many women and girls don’t even think they are worth reporting. This is the case for things like being grabbed, touched, and/or threatened by strangers. Thisneedstochange.’

• ‘There needs to be greater recognition that women and girls often feel unsafe on the streets, especially at night or in

parks or on commons etc. This is outrageous. These are our streets, parks, commons…’

Locally, the OPCC heard from communities across Northumbria and found that:

• 30% of respondents felt more unsafe because of one or more of their protected characteristics

• 62% felt unsafe or very unsafe in parks at night

• 89% felt unsafe due to men, boys and groups of people (87% of respondents identified as female)

Comments submitted via the survey from people of the North East reflected similar feelings to those found by the Home Office call for evidence. They referenced concerns about the ‘behaviour and attitudes of young men towards young women’ and indecent exposure in parks.

It was agreed something needed to be done that focused on making changes to address the safety of the environment and behaviours causing those fears.

STARTING POINT

Six local authorities within the Northumbria Police operating area each put forward a park, varying in size, location and design for inclusion in the project. All six are considered urban parks, situated in either densely residential areas or on the edge of the town/city centre.

Each of these parks have their own set of unique characteristics, covering several design aspects and environments. Each park was individually surveyed and commenced by meeting a park representative, from which we asked a series of consistent and categorised questions.

This helped us to obtain a detailed understanding of the day-to-day issues experienced within the park from somebody who had first-hand experience. From here, we conducted a walk-through of the park, with the representative, where we assessed any existing lighting, discussed areas of concern, popular routes, and any additional knowledge of the area.

Most of the survey took place during daylight hours, as this helped us to gain a better perspective and visual awareness. This was followed by a night-time inspection to compare, get a feel for how the space changes after dark and assess whether the space feels safe. Commencing with the consistent set of questions allowed us to gain the same information for each park. A small section can be seen below:

• What is the age demographic of park users after dark?

• Are there any current ASB (anti-social behaviour) concerns?

• Is there any existing lighting within park?

• •Are there any areas of overhanging vegetation?

• Does uniformity seem ok?

• Does the lighting level seem ok?

The answers highlighted the primary concerns, aims and desired outcomes for the parks that were to be included within the scope of works. We were also made aware that each park would look to provide the following functions:

• A primary route through the park being the most direct and/or quickest route through

• The proposed installation of a ‘help point’ with communication and CCTV coverage

The survey in each park highlighted a recurring theme. These were largely related to anti-social behaviour (ASB) within all the parks from the extents of vandalism and damage to existing lighting/buildings, fires being started, alcohol and drug use, and large gangs of youths loitering. All of these adding to the general feeling of unease and fear while within certain parks.

These feelings, however, were somewhat mitigated, even if only slightly, where it was felt a good-quality existing lighting design was in place.

This, teamed with other design attributes like open-plan spaces, clear visual awareness, continuously lit walkways, warmer colour temperatures and straight, direct primary routes, led to the consensus of a safer feeling environment.

AIM

The key aim of this proposal is to form recommendations for the implementation of lighting improvements or amendments to the existing lighting system, to provide a safer and more inclusive environment for women, girls, and marginalised groups.

Existing lighting provisions within the park were reviewed to assess the quality of the lighting and aid development of recommendations. Additionally, we considered the extent of the provision of lighting, the routes that should be lit, help points, switching regimes, use of lighting as access or thoroughfare as well as hours of usage, closing of the park and availability of alternate safe routes.

We focused on the lighting to the park and surrounding areas – where the primary function of the lighting installation is to provide a suitable level of illumination to facilitate the safe use for any visitor or staff member. The

aim will be to provide enough light to feel aware, comfortable, and able to travel though the park, utilise the facilities and spend any amount of time there safely and securely in the hours of darkness.

We provided options and recommendations for the lighting within the park and suggested any improvements if they were felt to be needed. The main aim was enhancing the overall feel of the park, with the added potential benefits of reducing energy consumption, maintenance and carbon emissions while providing a dynamic and unique lighting installation.

The main point was understanding that safety is key with the approach of the new ‘Safer Streets Standard’ and the recommendations will do everything they can to help improve on the levels of illumination to the park, specified ‘help point’ location, and any additional areas of concern.

For each park, we developed an outline lighting strategy which would assist in the further production of a detailed lighting solution. This would take into consideration environmental and geographical conditions while fulfilling the strategy’s primary function of illuminating the park effectively and sufficiently within the hours of darkness.

Along with this, it would also assist in a well-lit thoroughfare within the park, clear and concise routes, a safe space for the ‘help point’ teamed with any other recommendations that will further improve the project aims.

BENEFITS

The main benefit of the specification is to help provide a safer and more comfortable environment for those travelling through parks within the hours of darkness.

From each assessment and site visit of the area, all have posed different and unique variations of the same question: do these areas feel safe in the hours of darkness and would new or improved lighting help eradicate this?

Improved lighting may be proposed to enhance the general feel, appearance, use and function of the parks. A dynamic and well-thought-out lighting scheme will help to draw the eye of the user to a specific and well-lit route through the park, from entrance to exit safely and securely. In addition to this there are additional benefits of a well-implemented and compliant lighting scheme:

• Improved colour rendering for clearer facial recognition (especially at help point locations)

• Different colour appearance and colour temperature options available to suite several unique schemes

• Variety of optic distributions available to cover multiple circumstances

• Reduction of glare through better aimed and positioned units

• Mitigation of skyglow from existing installations

• Prevention of light trespass

• Less clutter through more directional luminaires

• Substantial energy savings

• Reduced carbon footprint

• Adaptable installations

• Ecological benefits

• Easily maintainable

• Responsible lighting

Footpath to Fifth Avenue (a route in one of the parks) by day, left, and how it looks by comparison at night

FINDINGS

It became evident from the assessment that there wouldn’t be a ‘one size fits all’ solution to the lighting within each park, due to a variety of unique characteristics.

For example, different considerations need to be applied if the park is open all night with the lighting operational from dusk till dawn than if the park is shut up, locked and the lighting switched off at closing.

The striking thing highlighted by the night-time surveys was that lighting alone cannot make these parks feel safe. A package of measures will be required to enhance the perception of feeling safe and secure, of which lighting is just one.

There were several common themes that presented themselves throughout the areas assessed. This enabled a set of general recommendations to be developed that could be applied to these and any other park in the area. Our general recommendations were as follows:

• Footpaths should be straight, with as few bends as possible to enable a clear and unrestricted view ahead.

• If footpaths are curved and winding, any vegetation should be thinned to allow a clear view around the bend to see what is up ahead.

• Where vegetation is growing alongside the footpaths, a strip should be cleared down each side to improve visibility off to the side to remove the feeling of being boxed or walled in.

• Promoting the use of the park by community groups, such as a local running club. It was apparent there is an increased feeling of safety when there are more people around using the park, also vandalism and ASB is less prevalent in more highly foot-trafficked areas.

• Not all routes through the park require to be lit, and it is beneficial to leave areas of darkness for wildlife.

• Main routes through the park should be lit. The main route typically links two or more gates and can be identified as being:

- The most used route through the park.

• Once the primary route through the park has been identified, the lighting strategy can be developed. We would recommend:

- The shortest route through the park.

- A continuously lit route from entrance to exit.

- LED luminaires with a correlated colour temperature (CCT) of no more than 3000K.

- LED luminaires with a colour rendering index (CRI) of at least 70.

- LED luminaires with a range of optics available. This would provide options for the varying footpath widths, areas within the park and the requirement to achieve a controlled amount of spill lighting into the adjacent areas either side of the footpath.

- Switching off lighting in areas outside of the primary route, leaving only this lit highlighting it as the shortest route to the exit. We would promote facilities are in place to switch this lighting back on in the case of planned events or an emergency.

• Where a park is shut up and locked at a particular time on an evening, we would recommend:

- Lighting should remain in operation at least up until closing time, but preferably a little longer allowing occupants enough time to exit safely.

- Changing the CCT of the LED source to a neutral white up to one hour before closing, to indicate there is a change happening. It was felt a neutral white is less inviting, therefore encouraging occupants to want to leave with the change.

- Adapting the lighting level to begin dimming of the LED source up to one hour before closing, to indicate there is a change happening. Lower lighting levels will be less inviting and naturally make people want to vacate the parks.

• Where a park is open for access all night, we would recommend:

- Lighting should be operational all night from dusk till dawn.

- Where multiple primary routes exist, consider which is the shortest route from entrance to exit and have this route lit to full brightness whilst other routes are dimmed down to a lower level, allowing users to easily see which is the quickest route to the exit.

Dimmed routes could be linked to motion detection that, in the event a user did decide to take one of the other routes, the lighting is brought back up to full brightness to allow safe passage to the exit.

- The area in the immediate vicinity of the help point should have increased lighting levels with good uniformity. The route to and away from the help point should also be lit continuously from the entrance to exit.

- Consider a method of control to apply a different lighting strategy in the event of the help point being activated. An example of this could be that colour-changing light is introduced to identify the quickest route to the help point from the entrance, or quickest route to the exit from the help point, in the event the help point is used. Alternatively, the CCT of the LED source could be changed from 3000K to 4000K to highlight the route.

- Hand in hand with the help point is clear and concise signage. Any emergency responder reacting to a call should be able to pick and follow the quickest route to the person in need of assistance easily and safely.

The footpath to Kings Road by day, left, and how it then looks and feels at night

CONCLUSION

The overall outcome for each park is that any lighting, whether existing or newly proposed, needs to increase the feeling of safety and promote the increase in usage, whilst providing a suitable level of illumination to facilitate safe passage through the park.

From the site visits and the knowledge gained from the park representatives, a concise and useful lighting implementation plan has been developed that can feed into the wider project.

Each of the parks have their own design attributes and varying characteristics, but the issues experienced in each are consistent. The surrounding and adjoining areas and facilities need to be taken into consideration when assessing the lighting provision.

The lighting should be well-controlled, directional, and sited to provide maximum illumination to the intended areas while being unique and tailored to the needs of each park.

Lighting on its own cannot make the park feel safe, it requires a whole package of measures from a multi-disciplinary approach to enhance the perception of feeling safe in the park environment.

The findings from our study have been reviewed by professor Rachel Pain, from Newcastle University, who led the development of a Safer Parks Standard, research that looks at the key areas to address to improve women’s safety in parks [3].

Harrison BA(Hons) is lighting designer and Paul Brownbridge IEng MILP is lighting engineer at Stainton Lighting Design Services

[1] ‘Safer Streets Fund continues to make streets safer’, Home Office, July 2022, https:// www.gov.uk/government/news/safer-streets-fund-continues-to-make-streets-safer

[2] ‘Tackling violence against women and girls strategy’, Home Office, July 2021, https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-violence-against-women-and-girls-strategy

[3] ‘Safer Parks Standard’, Kim McGuinness, Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, and Newcastle University, https://www.ncl.ac.uk/mediav8/gps/files/Northumbria%20 Safer%20Parks%20Standard%20FINAL%20DESIGNED_compressed.pdf