Employers should take some responsibility for ensuring shift workers get home safely and Cheshire East should consider this when pubs and clubs apply for late-night licences, two councillors have said.

Councillors Laura Smith and Sally Handley have put forward a motion to next week's meeting of the full council calling for safe night time travel for workers.

As well as asking for the licensing committee to take the matter into account, the two Labour councillors are also urging the council to call for the lowering of fares and to oppose any cuts to public transport funding.

In a statement due to go to next week's meeting, Cllr Smith states: "Shift work is widespread in many industries, particularly hospitality, as well as health and care workers, retail , cleaning, security and porter staff and can often entail late-night working.

"Many workers, especially women, are increasingly worried about their safety travelling to and from work at night.

"While employers may feel their duty of care to staff ends when an employee finishes a shift, they also need to take into consideration journeys home, especially during unsocial hours."

The Crewe councillors are calling on the council to look at a number of ways for ensuring safe night time travel for workers.

These include, using its powers – as they say others have done – 'to allow our licensing board to include additional criteria when considering late opening applications from licensed premises dependent on venues providing free transport home for night shift employees'.

They say this will significantly benefit the safety and wellbeing of hospitality workers, particularly women, who often cannot afford, or access, safe transport options late at night and benefit our community.

They also urge the council to publicly call for improvement to late-night and off-peak transport service provision and use the Government's Safety of Women at Night Fund to provide extra night services, as well as work with employers to use the fund for supplementary taxi travel.

They would like to see public transport fares lowered and want the council to call for 'the municipal ownership of buses in order to lower prices and improve service provision, especially for night-time and off-peak services and endeavour to work with Greater Manchester Combined Authority as they move forward with bus franchising using powers under the Bus services Act 2017'.

The motion is on the agenda for Wednesday's (October 19) meeting of the full council which takes place at Tatton Park at 11am.

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