A safe haven on a night out

A SAFE haven for anyone enjoying a night out in Exeter has opened in the heart of the city.

Exeter Safe Space has three main purposes - providing light medical treatment (cuts, sprains, recovery, blisters), welfare support (such as phone charging, water, safety alarms, bottle tops, change of clothes) and a safe warm place to wait for night buses.

It is open three nights a week Wednesday, Friday and Saturday –from 23:00 to 03:30am. It will not be open on Wednesdays during January

Located in St Stephens Church on High Street, right at the heart of Exeter’s bustling night scene, the Safe Space is funded by InExeter, the Community Safety Partnership and Safer Streets Fund 4.

Exeter Safe Space came from an idea by Mat Jarratt, Chair Best

Bar None, and Ann Hunter, InExeter BID Manager, a need further demonstrated by feedback from respondents to Exeter Community Safety Partnership’s survey in 2021, in which 86% of women said they did not feel safe in the city at night.

Creating this Safe Space became a key o ff er in the latest successful bid to the Government’s Safer Streets Fund which brought £680,000 to the city.

The project, which is delivered under the umbrella of city’s Community Safety Partnership, Safer Exeter, will deliver a number of initiatives to reduce violence against women and girls and reduce antisocial behaviour particularly in the evening and nighttime.

In the first month of operation 21 people received medical assessments, 25 people had their phones charged, 12 people were given clothing to keep warm and 125 bottles of water handed out.

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