A councillor was very disappointed when her motion designed to help keep women safer by redesigning parking in central areas of town was voted down.

Eastcott Labour councillor Marina Strinkovsky had introduced a motion asking the council’s highways team to look at increasing parking provision in some of the areas in the centre of Swindon where parking is at a premium in terraced streets, specifically with the aim of allowing women to park closer to home and face less of a walk in the dark evenings.

It called on the cabinet member for highways maintenance, Coun Kevin Parry to prepare a report for cabinet looking at ways to redesign parking in Eastcott, Central and Old Town wards, and to commit to “consider engaging residents in the affected wards in a listening exercise to understand the community’s concerns and collaborate on developing solutions.”

Introducing the motion Coun Strinkovsky said: ”Less than a year ago in November we came together, putting our differences aside to commit to women’s safety.

“Women’s safety needs a holistic approach, it should inform all policy across every cabinet portfolio.”

Saying women living in the areas of the wards where parking is in short supply often had to walk further than they’d like in the dark to get home, she said: “It’s easy to dismiss the lack of parking as trivial. But Sarah Everard and Sabina Ness were walking home, along the best lit, most CCTV-covered, business streets in the country, and none of that helped them.”

But Coun Parry said there was very little extra the council was able to do. He said: “Parking shortages in residential areas is common across the country.

“Swindon is no different.

“Residents know if there’s no parking when they buy or rent a property in the town centre.”

Coun Parry said the council had conducted surveys of streets, had squeezed in additional parking by removing yellow lines where it was possible and safe to do so.

He added: “We’ve gone as far as we can. It has already been done. I can’t support this.”

Coun Parry also claimed the motion was in breach of equality law.

Although Labour members voted for their colleague’s motion, Conservative members voted en bloc against it, causing it to fall.

Coun Strinkovsky said: “I wish I could say I was disappointed, but to be disappointed I would have had to have had belief something would have been done.”