Manchester City Council has confirmed that it is to take further steps to make the city safer for everyone.
This comes with the announcement that the WalkSafe app will launch across the city at the beginning of September, with this supporting people to make safer journeys regardless of the time of day.
The app will support safer journeys by letting people pick routes through the city that are known to be safe, whilst also sharing the user’s location with family or friends. Should the person fail to reach their intended destination, the app will then also send out an automatic alert.
Launching the app complements other work that the council has undertaken to make the city safer, with this focusing on the nighttime economy and putting a specific emphasis on the safety of women. The council stated that it is understandable that a new focus has been placed on making cities safer for people at night, following the tragic murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa.
One of the measures that the council has launched to support making Manchester safer is the Women’s Night-time Safety Charter, which was introduced in 2022 and makes free guidance and training available to venues across the city to ensure that safety is both supported and promoted.
Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council Cllr Joanne Midgley said:
“The response that we saw to our Night-time Safety Charter was incredibly gratifying, seeing businesses across the sector rally behind us to make Manchester a safer city.
“Since its launch we have trained hundreds of staff and provided resources to ensure that venues know how to react and respond when they encounter someone who may be at risk.
“The arrival of WalkSafe to Manchester is a huge development and one which I believe would strengthen the work we are doing around safety. In an ideal world anyone should be able to go where they want, when they want but until then, it is important we put measures in place to protect and empower our residents.
“In the coming months we will be working with partners across the city, as well as within our burgeoning nighttime and events sector, and our universities to make sure that anyone has the tools to keep themselves safe.”
The council is hoping that, with the introduction of WalkSafe, more people will be empowered to feel safe no matter who they are, where they are going, and what time of day it is.
WalkSafe founder Emma Kay also commented:
“Like us, Manchester City Council takes the safety of everyone in the city seriously and to partner with them on such an important initiative is an absolute privilege.”
Image credit: iStock
