What Makes a Park Feel Safe and Unsafe

In October 2021, the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, working with the five West Yorkshire district community safety partnerships and Third Sector partners, was awarded Home Office ‘Safer Streets’ funding to support the safety of women and girls in West Yorkshire’s parks, including research led by Dr Anna Barker and Professor George Holmes at the University of Leeds on women and girls’ perceptions of safety.

This research used Q methodology to explore the views of women and girls in West Yorkshire towards safety in parks, specifically what makes parks feel safe or unsafe. Q methodology is a set of qualitative and quantitative research techniques which was used to identify the shared viewpoints that exist around safety in parks. There may be lots of views on safety, but these tend to cluster into shared viewpoints.

The research identified where there is consensus and divergence in views, what variation in views exist, and what issues are relatively more important to perceptions of safety in parks. Some 27 professionals from different services within local government and the police in West Yorkshire also participated in the research.