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Safer Parks: Improving Access for Women and Girls (Summary)

*This is the Executive Summary of the guidance. For the Full Guidance document click here


Safer Parks: Improving access for women and girls

Parks are essential for all of us, but are less used by women and girls due primarily to concerns about safety, with health and wellbeing impacts.

This guidance builds on research by the University of Leeds in 2022 and sets out to address the inequity of access to parks using ten principles under three sections.



Ten case studies of good practice also demonstrate how the principles can be applied.

Better design and management can’t solve all the problems which keep women and girls out of parks, but with the right planning, funding and support, the benefits of parks and green spaces can be enjoyed more equally by everyone.

Watch a video on the guidance here: VIDEO 

The document forms supplementary guidance to the Green Flag Award programme, which sets the benchmark standard for management of parks and green spaces across the UK and around the world.


The guidance was prepared by Keep Britain Tidy, Make Space for Girls, the University of Leeds and West Yorkshire Combined Authority © The Safer Parks Consortium (2023)

Funded by: The Mayor of West Yorkshire and the Economic and Social Research Council

Document credits
Text is made available under CC-BY 4.0.
Artwork by Harper Perry Architects and Josie Brookes.
See photographs for image credits.
Images and artwork © all rights reserved
DOI: 10.48785/100/151

For more information on the producers and funders visit:

Keep Britain Tidy

University of Leeds

Make Space for Girls

West Yorkshire Combined Authority

The Mayor of West Yorkshire

Economic and Social Research Council

Access resource

Author: The Safer Parks Consortium (UK)

Date first published: 10 May 2023

Estimated Read Time: (EXECUTIVE SUMMARY) - 5 minute read