A THURROCK councillor has revealed his daughter's harrowing ordeal after it was alleged she was locked in a taxi by the driver.

At Thurrock Council's full meeting last night (Thursday, 26 September) where a campaign to prevent violence against women was launched, Cllr Michael Fletcher said: "This one comes close to me. About one or two months ago my daughter was taking a taxi from Basildon back to Thurrock.

"The driver drove her off the Thurrock road into an estate. He then told her he was going to take her to his house.

"When my daughter protested he locked the doors. She had enough sense to reason with him to the point he unlocked the doors and let her out but he still parked up the road so she had to phone home while this individual was watching.

"When I picked her up she was in a completely hysterical state that I never want to see her in again."

He added: "This tells me we really do need to be doing something. These are our wives, our girlfriends and our daughters, not just statistics. These are real people we know and love."

The "Thurrock Get Me Home Safely" campaign was proposed by Labour councillor for West Thurrock and South Stifford, Aaron Green, and supported by the whole council.

Cllr Green said: "This campaign will encourage businesses to actively ensure staff get home safely when they finish work late.

"The national policing statement has declared that violence against women and girls is now a pandemic. 84 per cent of women in the UK say they feel unsafe waiting for a bus after dark and 54 per cent say they often feel unsafe using public transport.

"By making sure people they employ get home safely business will demonstrate commitment to their staff that could bring further business to their door The statistics around this are frightening ."

Independent Cllr Neil Speight said the council itself could provide more operators for the borough's 1,000 CCTV cameras. Cllr Speight said there should be 30 operators running a 24/7 service but there are currently just 11 operators.

He said: "If we are going to ask businesses to look after their staff and to be conscious of the fact that when people leave the building there is still a responsibility to look after them, then this council shares the same corporate responsibility for women and children across the borough.

"Effectively we are abdicating that responsibility by not running an effective, state-of-the-art CCTV system."