Cardiff freshers: City's efforts to improve safety for students

"If I'm out and find myself alone, I tend to look for other groups of girls - I feel safer knowing other girls are out," says student nurse Freya Stewart.

As students return to Cardiff for the new term, efforts are being made to help freshers and others feel as safe as possible.

South Wales Police said it understood recent events had caused concern and was running high-visibility patrols.

A business group has organised 35 billboards with links to safety advice.

Organised by For Cardiff, which represents city centre companies, the adverts have QR codes to direct people to a list of nearby "safe spaces" they can visit if they feel at risk.

It will run for two weeks as part of freshers' fortnight, but some students have said it should become a permanent fixture.

The campaign was prompted by a recent report which suggested 80% of women in the UK had been sexually harassed in public spaces.

There have also been calls to "overhaul the justice system" to better tackle violence against women after a Metropolitan Police officer admitted raping and killing 33-year-old Sarah Everard in London.

Carolyn Brownell, head of marketing and communications at For Cardiff, said it was important as many businesses as possible signed up to scheme to make it an even safer network.

One business that has joined is the Angel Hotel in the heart of the city.

The hotel has let many young people wait in the lobby, charge phones or seek support from staff, sales manager Sarah Pedlar said.

A Cardiff University spokesperson said it supported the campaign and had a number of measures in place, including a safe taxi scheme and security staff on campus at all times to help students feel safe during freshers' fortnight and beyond.

Last month, a man admitted raping a woman in the city's Bute Park.

Tyler Higgins, 19, attacked the woman in the early hours of 15 July.

Five days later, 54-year-old Gary Jenkins was attacked in a nearby part of the park.

The doctor died after 16 days in hospital and three people have been charged with his murder.

Cardiff University student Gwen Weldon has worked in the park for four years and said she now felt uneasy when walking home - especially as the winter nights draw in.

"I don't feel comfortable at all - my boss has it in place that we all walk home together," the 22-year-old said.

"Especially in the dark, it's quite jarring, before I didn't mind it so much but now it puts me on edge a lot."

But she said feeling uncomfortable in the day was not something out of the ordinary, with one incident leaving her "genuinely scared".

"A couple of weeks ago I was going to the bakery at nine in the morning and this guy came up to me asking to have sex and how much I cost.

"He got in my face about it, I was genuinely scared I was going to be followed."

She said recent initiatives to make the city safer made her "rest a lot easier" but would like to see more CCTV cameras in the 23-acre park.

For 21-year-old Freya Stewart, staying with friends or people you know when out is the most important thing to feeling safe.

"If I'm out and find myself alone, I tend to look for other groups of girls - I feel safer knowing other girls are out," the student nurse said.

She said the billboard campaign was helpful but questioned how practical it was for those who are drunk.

"The time I get worried about my friends is when they are very drunk and I don't think a very, very drunk person would be able to scan a QR code and find a location," she said.

Ashley Morgan, who runs a campaign called Change the Discourse to raise awareness of women's safety, said harassment happened to women of all ages.

She said it was important to understand harassment was "any unwanted behaviour, particularly in public by somebody you don't know".

As someone who has been running for 33 years, she said this had been a constant feature in her life.

"There's too much focus on women being incumbent on keeping themselves safe," she said.

The sociologist at Cardiff Metropolitan University said: "What we need to do is say, 'don't attack women, men' and we clearly need to say it because it's not stopping."

She said a group of male Cardiff University students had not been given enough "kudos" for setting up a chaperoning service for women at university when they saw a Facebook post threatening to rape women.

"I love the fact that there are men out there who were willing to put their hands up and say, 'this is wrong'."

Supt Andy Morgan, of British Transport Police, said now was the time to refresh its safety campaign "off the back of a number of well-documented cases and historic events".

It will be running "proactive patrols" on the railway line between Pontypridd and Cathays during the freshers' fortnight and emphasising its discreet text service.

Latest figures for September show that the force has recorded six sexual or unwanted sexual behaviour offences in Wales so far in 2021.

Supt Morgan said rail travel across Wales was "very safe" compared to other parts of the UK and crime was low, but recognised "enough is enough and we have to be seen to take action on these offenders".

Ch Supt Wendy Gunney, the South Wales Police divisional commander for Cardiff and the Vale, said the force understood "recent events have caused concern" but the city had an "excellent history" of working with others to "ensure its night-time economy is safe, vibrant and welcoming".

She said there were high-visibility patrols around the centre, two safety buses running every night during the freshers' fortnight and the force was working with the council to increase their CCTV coverage in Bute Park and along other routes home from the city.

"In relation to recent incidents, individuals have been arrested and charged, and while our investigations and patrols continue we want people to be able to go out, enjoy themselves and feel safe in our capital city."

"Officers have been trained to help them identify and safeguard vulnerable people and we regularly see examples where this training has paid off," she said, adding that anyone with concerns was encouraged to approach a police officer.