North West gets £2.5m boost to make streets safer

The Prime Minister has pledged nearly £2.5m to make the north west's public spaces safer.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Boris Johnson told ITV Granada Reports he wants the streets to be safer.

The money will be shared between projects to protect women and girls in Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Blackpool.

One of Manchester's Metrolink trams Credit: Eamonn and James Clarke/PA Images

They include innovative plans to offer better protection in public spaces and on services such as Manchester's Metrolink.

It also includes schemes which emphasise changing attitudes and behaviours in local communities. 

The government says crimes which take place in public places such as sexual harassment disproportionately affect women.

The news comes days after Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens was sentenced to life behind bars for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

Couzens used his Met Police warrant card and handcuffs to kidnap 33-year-old Ms Everard as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3.