Agenda item

Report of the Director of Community Services.

This report sets out and details Camden Women’s Safety Public Realm Action Plan. It has been developed in response to ongoing challenges with regards to Violence against Women and Girls and related issues reflecting the Camden Community Safety Partnership’s commitment towards prioritising women’s safety.

The report provides an overview of the Women’s Safety Public Realm Action plan in the context of licensed venues in the Borough.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Community Services.

The Community Safety Manager introduced the report alongside the Director of Public Safety.

Councillor Pat Callaghan, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities commented on the contents of the report highlighting the importance of the work on women’s safety, including the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme and the creation of the Safety Hub in Camden Town.

In response to Committee Members’ questions, Officers provided the following key information:

• The Camden Safety Hub had a focus on women’s safety and would operate between the hours of 19.00hrs and midnight on a Friday and Saturday, with a view to extend these hours in the future. It was intended that the Camden Safety Hub would provide a model that could be rolled out to other hotspots, such as Kings Cross, if there is demand for the service in those areas.
• Whilst the application for a premises licence was a standardised process within a legislative framework, measures could be taken to bring women’s safety to the forefront of this process. Discussions could take place with Licensing and Legal Officers to ascertain how the application process could prioritise women’s safety, whilst ensuring statutory obligations are fulfilled. 
• This work could consist of, including women’s safety issues in any future consultation that was undertaken, updating the applicant’s guidance to include advice on how to promote women’s safety during the application process, and the Licensing Panel report template could be updated to include an informative to Members about Women’s Safety.

ACTION: Director of Public Safety/ Public Protection Manager

• Furthermore, it was expected that all applicants have due regard the Statement of Licensing Policy in its entirety when making an application and an appendix on women’s safety had been added to the Policy last year, so applicants should give this consideration.
• It was indented that venues would be able to advertise that they were signed up to the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme, which could provide reassurance to women going into venues.
• Whilst getting 85% of licensed premises to sign up to ‘Ask for Angela’ was ambitious, it was important to have a clear target and a means to have a record for those premises that had signed up.

Members made the following comments of the report:

• ‘Ask for Angela’ should be part of every licensed venue’s operation, including food outlets that are licensed for late night refreshment.
• Whilst venues signing up to the Ask for Angela scheme was positive, if someone was in a position where they had to use it, something had already gone wrong. Therefore, venues should be encouraged to create environments that were safe for everyone and were bystanders were able to intervene if they witnessed harassment.
• There were already some examples, such as venues that had created safe spaces for people to use if they felt uncomfortable and projects such as Safer Gigs for Women.
• The ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme could provide a good model to address other issues such as transphobia or homophobia, and to ensure the promotion of equality and diversity in the evening and night-time economy.

Members discussed instances of violence against women that had taken place in their Wards and discussed how inconsistent approaches had caused concern within the community. The Director of Public Protection advised that there were robust systems and frameworks in place, some statutory and some local policy, to respond to the incidents and provide reassurance to the community. In terms of licensing, there was a multiagency forum, the Licensing Tasking Process, that looked at new and variation applications to identify any potential issues. The Director of Public Protection reported that this process was currently being developed to have a more neighbourhood approach to ensure local issues were monitored effectively.

Overall, Members were pleased with the progress that had been made with regards to the work on women’s safety and thanked officers for their efforts.

RESOLVED –

THAT the Licensing Committee note the report.