A women’s safety campaigner has critised plans to launch an emergency number that tracks vulnerable women on their way home as “yet another gimmick”, urging officials to focus on tackling male violence instead.

Anna Birley, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, said: “If this is seen as the solution and that other, deeper, more difficult, braver work doesn’t happen, then it’s impossible to support this. It’s whitewashing the problem.” Report by Buseld. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn