Cambridge Universities Labour Club (CULC) has started a petition on change.org calling for Cambridge’s clubs to sign the Good Night Out Campaign pledge, ahead of a meeting between these venues and CUSU Women’s Officer Charlotte Chorley.

The petition, which was launched on 12th November, has so far gathered nearly 300 supporters, and calls for Ballare, Kuda, Fez, Lola Lo’s, The Regal Wetherspoons, and Revolution Cambridge to publicly support the pledge, which is part of a national campaign by Hollaback London to end harassment on nights out. The pledge is designed to ensure that staff in these venues are trained to support victims of harassment.

CULC Publicity Officer, Imogen Shaw, who started the petition on behalf of the Club, told Varsity that the petition allows Chorley to “demonstrate the large amount of support” the Campaign has going into her meeting with the venues concerned. She also praised the Good Night Out Campaign as “practical” and “easy to implement”, adding that it “will help people feel safer in our city’s nighttime venues”.

The petition states that it is unacceptable that individuals should feel “harassed, vulnerable or unsafe on a night out in Cambridge”, and calls for a “stronger, more united message from the institutions themselves”.

The issue of harassment has recently come under the spotlight, with the 2014 report “Cambridge Speaks Out” noting that 77 per cent of its 2,130 respondents had experienced sexual harassment, and 28.5 per cent had been victims of sexual assault.

“Promoting a zero tolerance policy to sexual harassment” was also one of Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner’s “5 Pledges for Students” during his election campaign in May.

In September 2015, Kuda and Ballare introduced a customer campaign entitled “We Care”, which provides free phone charging stations in cloakrooms and a taxi escort service to vulnerable clients. The scheme also involves the training of female “Customer Care Ambassadors”.

However, despite being largely well received in the student press, concerns have since been raised about the efficacy of the scheme, with CUSU’s Women’s Campaign stating that they have received reports of “several” instances of sexual harassment which were allegedly dealt with poorly by door staff at Kuda.

Chorley, who can deliver Good Night Out training, has stated that she is “open to the possibility of training bar and door staff within the venues of Cambridge”.