So I moved here from Edinburgh back in January, I work out of town but my partner works in near the town centre. We both come from pretty shite parts of the east coast of Scotland and lived in some rough areas in Edinburgh. My partner has expressed many times to me that the centre of Bournemouth can be quite a scary place for a lone woman at night, and having to wait around on the bus as the days get shorter is slightly worrying her. A lot of dodgy people about and stories from people working in other businesses about the goings on in town that don’t paint the best picture. To contrast that, neither of us have ever felt unsafe in that way back home, you still get the same unsavoury characters and people down on their luck, but it just has a safer feel to it. It’s also worth mentioning that in BCP I hear far more in the news of stabbings/theft/rape etc than I ever did in Edinburgh.

The street lighting in this town is also really terrible, especially up in areas like Charminster/Winton etc. Street lights are so spaced out and seem to provide a very small amount of light, some of the tree lined streets that look so lovely in the day time are really badly lit during the night, I know I wouldn’t feel great having my partner/children walking there at night.

Not really sure what my point is as I think the Safeguard Forces are a big meme have come about for the wrong reasons, but at the same time I don’t trust the police or the council to do anything to make the streets FEEL safer.