I vividly remember the buzz in the air the month before starting at Leeds University, of a petition circulating in a freshers’ group chat. ‘Put street lights in Woodhouse Moor and surrounding Hyde Park areas’. Having no clue what it was about but knowing the importance due to thousands of signatures, I scrolled through the reasons for signing, with a multitude of comments demanding safety for students and residents. As soon as I started University, it was common knowledge for all new students that we must not walk through the park when it’s dark. Some of my friends talked about seeing suspicious people and their iffy behaviour, friends of friends talked about sexual assaults taking place, and the University itself even discouraged people from walking through the park.
Having just started University, this was something that was already actively affecting me and the other students at Leeds. It wasn’t long until I had my first negative experience, being followed home, by a very vocally aggressive man, from campus in the late afternoon. It almost became the norm in Leeds culture to exchange stories of bad experiences. No one seemed to understand why there was no action being taken despite Hyde Park being a crime-ridden hotspot, as well as an important route for walking home from the University, and also it being a place, next to which many people reside.
Despite the petition, and campaigns like the Light Up Hyde Park event in which student protestors illuminated Woodhouse Moor with candles and torches, and heartfelt letters written to the council, the issue of the lack of lighting still remains unaddressed. A blog post was written by Tom Podger from 2016 interviews a PC within West Yorkshire Police, who claims that there is no way he would recommend lighting in the park as it would ‘attract crime rather than prevent it’, promote more people walking through the park and therefore increase criminal activity, and ‘create dark patches for criminals to use as cover’. From his perspective, introducing lighting around the park would highlight could-be victims. Whilst I respect this viewpoint, I, for one, know that I would feel ten times more comfortable walking through a well-lit park, freed from the constant unease of being followed.
To know that the vibrant park in the daylight, which is loved so much for its’ greenery and buzzing social atmosphere could also simultaneously instill an eerie feeling of fear when darkness falls, is truly disheartening. Considering the efforts that members of the student community have displayed to communicate concerns and experiences, the lack of engagement from the council is simply disappointing. We shouldn’t be forced to always take the long way home just to feel safe in the dark. We all have the right to feel secure.
It’s important to turn this narrative into a catalyst for change; sign the petition and let’s reclaim the right to a safe journey home at night.
Petition
Blog post 2016 Tom podger
Edited by: Adrita Barua