Brighton & Hove City Council's latest tracker survey of 1000 residents, which it performs every year, has shown that, while 90% of residents think Brighton & Hove is a great place to live, only 6 in 10 felt 'very safe' or 'fairly safe' in the city centre after dark.

Almost a quarter of respondents [22%] said they felt 'fairly unsafe' or 'very unsafe'. However, this isn't very different from the findings across the UK. Nationally the average is 80% of people feeling safe after dark in the city where they live. In Sweden, a country with a reputation for low levels of crime, 36% of women feel unsafe after dark in city centres.

Statistics provided by Sussex Police show that violent crime has risen in the city centre with 4,110 violent or sexual crimes recorded in the past 12 months.