Kingston Upon Hull has seen a drastic increase in the number of hate crimes being committed in the city, with minority groups facing a heightened risk of violence and abuse in the streets. While my work involves raising this in meetings with those who have the power to make a difference, so far this has fallen on relatively deaf ears.

 

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Whole communities live under a cloud of risk, fear, and helplessness, with people like myself under the name of Hull Pledge, and groups like Last Pick Theatre, Trans Hull, Safe Night Out and more working to mitigate the consequences of governmental ignorance and inaction. This is the first project I have undertaken as part of my political work and activism that will transcend the LGBTQIA+ community, and will serve to benefit ALL minority groups at risk of violence in Hull.

Along with a range of actions that will take place over the next twelve months, i am also launching this, the Hull Pledge Safer Streets Scheme, designed to reduce the risks to minority groups by involving large proportions of Hull’s Businesses and nightlife sectors in the effort, with the overarching message of: it’s time for everybody to shed apathy, and take responsibility for protecting other human beings from danger in our city.

While this scheme will be enacted in three phases, there will be no time line and no schedule to adhere to, as I'm under no illusions that this will be an easy scheme to drum up participants for.

The planning for this scheme has been gradually undertaken following the 2023 results of Hull Pledge’s annual Help Us To Help You (HU2HU) survey, which was conducted in the first few months of the aforementioned year.

Of the 44 responses to the question, 'Have you ever been victim of a Hate Crime’ 100% answered ‘Yes’. The responses were then corroborated by the skyrocketing statistics outlined on the previous page.

Further to the social implications of the rising risk to individuals, is the inaction of those with the potential to affect real change, specifically prominent politicians within the city refusing to engage in conversations, and in some cases even openly standing with Transphobic or “Gender Critical” hate groups.

This is why this scheme engages members of the community from the general public to senior politicians in the city over the course of each phase- if action is taken, if this scheme is engaged with, if those with the power to help do so, this scheme will be a success in reducing the number of crimes against not only LGBTQIA+ people but all minorities at risk. If not, it will fail, and we will be seeing many more people being attacked in the streets.

Hull Pledge’s long term goal is to work to make Hull a sanctuary city for LGBTQIA+ people, and with a bustling LGBTQIA+ nightlife scene and an engaged community we stand a good chance of doing so. This scheme, therefore, could be the beginning of a national trend, with other groups seeing our city taking action, we could be the ones to start a much needed change.

 

Phase One: Safe Spaces

This first phase of this scheme will encourage any pub, club, cafe, shop, or other form of community space, which has the right to remove people from their premises, to use that right to provide sanctuary to those who need it.

By simply printing and sticking a HPSSS logo  to their window or door, they can let the minority groups  know that if they are in trouble they can shelter in (or supervised outside of) the premises while they wait for the authorities or transport.

While this will be extremely beneficial for potential victims of hate crimes in the daylight hours, it is especially needed in the cities nightlife sector, allowing people to wait under staff supervision for police intervention in the event of a crime or transport in order to try to prevent one happening, would bring about a reduction in the crimes happening while at-risk groups travel between nightclubs, or travel to taxi ranks. All clubs have the ability to do this, with private security a permanent fixture already in clubs across the city; this would be extending their roles to go beyond kicking out trouble makers, to also protecting those who could be targeted.

 

Phase Two: Council Involvement 

Phase two of this scheme will hopefully entail the involvement of the City Council, through their resources we will be able to set up an additional safe wait zone with private security immediately available on site with potential links and partnerships with security providers within the city.

Of course another option would be a partnership with Humberside Police, however the relationship between Humberside Police and the queer community within the city has declined and continues to decline over time. This breakdown in trust stems from ongoing failures to deal with hate crimes effectively. Only 2 out of 91 hate crimes against transgender people in Hull ,in 2023, have been resolved with charges or a court summons. Obviously some of that falls upon the CPS, who under the government's leadership, and following the trend found within most of the institutions within the country, which consistently fails transgender people.

The history of the terse relationship between the police and the queer community (not just in our city but within the entire United Kingdom) goes back a lot further than the last few years, and it will take more years to repair, making the only viable option focusing on the private security option, but encouraging contacting the police in an emergency.

 

An ongoing part of my work does entail finding ways for the mending of the relationship between the police and the queer community in the city while also advocating for victims of hate crimes and discussing specific cases with them, but fixing this relationship will not be a fast process.

Focusing on the scheme in its current form, it is my hope that by having private security at hand at these safe wait zones, less queer people and less at risk minorities in general will face abuse of violence while waiting for transport to get home especially on an evening and even more especially on a weekend evening. Alongside these phases of the Hull Pledge Safer Streets Scheme, I will also be undertaking research to find the hotspots of hate crimes in Hull, in an effort to focus more resources to those areas.

For now, I believe the best option would be to have the Safe Wait Zones in at least two or three places for a pilot period of 6 months, with candidates for these places being: Ferensway, Queens Gardens, Old Town, Witham, Newland Avenue, and Beverley Road; the busiest spots on weekend and weekday nights.

 

Phase Three: Transportation

 

This phase would involve a taxi firm (or multiple firms) signing up to the scheme, and helping minority groups by having a set number of cars on permanent availability during set hours on set days, reducing the risk for at-risk people (especially for those who travel alone) being targeted.

This phase must see transport providers such as taxi firms holding their drivers to an acceptable standard of performance, as there have been numerous reports of taxi drivers refusing to allow LGBTQIA+ people in their cars, specifically Trans people and Drag artists, which then left them at risk of abuse until another mode of transport could be arranged.

 

This phase could also involve a public transport provider. Stagecoach, East Yorkshire, or Hull City Council themselves could provide a regular shuttle bus to transport those who could be at risk of violence, much like at a lot of universities who keep students safe when traveling home from night clubs. Phase three could see the prevention of people who would normally walk home alone from being targeted, further reducing the currently skyrocketing number of hate crimes in our city.

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Now is the time.

The window of opportunity to do what needs to be done to protect the minority groups in Hull is closing, soon we may see those assaults and hospitalisations become mortalities if we don't band together and work to resolve this growing problem.

It falls down to responsibility, those with the power to do something, big or small, must do it. Councils must act, MPs must represent, Protectors must protect but most importantly, individuals must engage.

This scheme has a real chance of enacting a change that is so desperately needed, but it will take many people working together to actualise it.