WOMEN and girls across North Wales have been urged to have their say in a survey about their experiences and concerns over personal safety.

The Voice Against Violence Survey was launched by North Wales Police earlier this month to seek views of women’s safety in North Wales.

Temporary Detective Inspector Clare Foreman, of the force's Protecting Vulnerable People Unit, said: "This initiative came about following the tragic death of Sarah Everard.

"I came across a campaign Cumbria Police was running, with a survey for women to give them feedback around violence offences against women and girls.

"For me, that was such a good idea because it shows the police are willing to listen to the public.

"I decided to try and replicate that, but made it more fitting to North Wales.

"The survey has been going for almost a month now and it's anonymous, it's aimed at women and girls and it is trying to identify places they don't feel safe.

"That could be in their home, in their local town, in restaurants, on public transport, in bars.

"We are also asking for their feedback if they have reported something to us before. "We don't always get things right and we want to learn from this and identify things we can improve.

"We know it's not going to be a quick fix - these things take time. "But when we have the results, we can formulate ideas on how we can make women and girls feel safer."

Some of the offences covered in the survey are domestic abuse, stalking, harassment, rape and sexual assault.

So far, just over 2,000 responses have been received and the survey is due to run until July 2.

T/DI Foreman said: "We may decide to extend it - I was pleased to see how many responses we have had, but the more the better.

"We also have a liaison officer working with the schools because we don't want to miss the voice of the young people.

"Another part of the project which I am doing is with a Government funding stream called the Safer Streets Fund. "We will be working to identify areas across North Wales where these offences are higher so we can tackle them. "Safer Streets funding is specifically for offences committed in public, so it might be covering things like additional CCTV or street lighting, or whether we need more safe places for women to go. "For example the Welfare Centre in Brook Street, Wrexham - if you're out on a night our in the town and you're scared, you can go there. "We really like that idea and we'd like to promote it in places like Rhyl and Bangor."

The survey also contains contact information for a number of support agencies.

T/DI Foreman encouraged any women and girls who may be able to contribute to the survey to do so.

More information and links can be found on the North Wales Police website.