Fallowfield student safety petition aims for 10,000 mark

A petition to make Fallowfield a safer area for students to live in has captured more than 8,500 signatures.

Crime in the area has risen since the university term began and students are said to be feeling unsafe in their own homes.

Multiple attacks and burglaries have been reported, sparking the creation of the petition by University of Manchester student Matthew Harvison.

Fallowfield residents have took to Twitter to express their fear and displeasure with living there.

Feel like fallowfield has just been left to itself as some kind of lawless place. Regular burglaries, stabbings, rapes, muggings – not ok

— ✨over-analytical (@OQuill) 19 October 2017

Campaigners would like an increased security presence, better lighting on the streets or monitored CCTV in certain areas in order to feel protected.

Since 1 Oct there were 67 burglaries in the student areas of Fallowfield, Withington & Old Moat – 46% were due to insecurities #studentsafe

— G M Police (@gmpolice) October 17, 2014

Matthew is meeting with the deputy mayor of Greater Manchester, Councillor Beverley Hughes, in the coming weeks and hopes to reach the 10,000 signature mark soon.

His goal is to prevent crime before it happens, rather than deal with the aftermath.

There has been stabbing, muggings, rapes, burglaries, assault, indecent behaviour on every single street in fallowfield/withington

— Taormina Miller (@TaorminaMiller) October 13, 2017

He said: “Since starting the petition, the university [of Manchester] students’ union has released a statement in the form of a word document detailing measures they have agreed to take with the support of the GMP and the local councils.

“These include installing new LED street lamps throughout the secluded streets of Fallowfield that are worst hit, as well as developing a ‘night owl’ scheme made of trained volunteers to help assist the police force who are also going to increase their presence in and around Fallowfield.”

Thanks to the hard work of Matthew the change.org petition  has produced some positive news for Fallowfield residents already, and should the signature goal be reached, the movement may have further positive influence.