• IN October I saw a courageous report on Nextdoor from a woman resident who had been sexually assaulted by a man on the Black Path in West Hampstead.

This was in broad daylight and many women and girls in the community, including myself, are now avoiding this route between Broomsleigh Street and West Hampstead Thameslink station due to safety fears.

Women shouldn’t have to make changes to their daily lives in order to feel safe. We shouldn’t have to weigh up the risk and take a deep breath before embarking on a journey through any path, park or other public space.

I know this feeling all too well since being followed home by a car full of men on a quiet Sunday evening in Fortune Green. They drove alongside me slowly, stopped the car, got out and started shouting at me.

Thankfully this happened in a residential area and I was able to take refuge with a kind neighbour I had never met before, who walked me home safely.

There is no such refuge on the Black Path or Wayne Kirkum Way, another important but enclosed path in the community, connecting the Sidings Estate with Mill Lane.

As someone who is generally averse to extensive surveillance in society, I feel strongly that CCTV can be effective in providing reassurance and a sense of security in specific areas where there is a shortage of passive surveillance.

The two paths in Fortune Green are examples of enclosed public routes that require more investment in safety measures to make women feel safe.

CCTV, security mirrors, as well as proper working lighting and regular cutting back of overgrowth, are all measures that could and should be implemented on these enclosed routes; not only to make women feel safe but to act as a deterrent for future crime.

The onus shouldn’t be on us, as women, to make changes to our daily lives in order to feel safe. The onus should be on ensuring we, as women, feel safe going about our daily lives in society.

I hope that Camden Council will consider further investment in improving safety measures for these enclosed paths and others like them across the borough at their debate on violence against women and girls on November 22.

LORNA GREENWOOD, NW2