Free flip-flops will be handed out to Liverpool clubbers on nights out to stop them risking walking barefoot through the city’s streets.
The new scheme, which will be funded by Liverpool City Council, will see Street Pastors patrolling the city centre to hand out flip-flops to any girls they see walking with no shoes on.
Volunteer force Street Pastors have been buying slippers and flip-flops from pound shops across the city to make sure girls who give up on their heels don’t stand in broken bottles or any other sharp objects when walking or staggering home.
Cllr Ann O’Byrne, the Labour cabinet member for community safety, told JMU Journalism: “Some women attempt to walk home from Liverpool city centre with no shoes – usually because their feet are sore from wearing high heels all night. Inevitably some of them end up in hospital suffering from lacerations when they step on broken glass.
“We are delighted that the Street Pastors are giving them out. Flip-flops may not be fashionable but they are certainly a better look than bandaged feet!”
The new scheme has been set up with a hope to “reduce the burden on accident and emergency units”, with young women being taken to the emergency room for foot-related injuries.
Liverpool student Jenny Moroney knows first hand just how it feels to end up in A&E after walking shoeless after a night out. She said: “I used to take my heels off if they started to ache my feet when I was walking from club to club. A few months ago I did this and ended up standing on an old smashed glass bottle.
“Not only did it ruin the night for everyone and really hurt but I had to go straight to hospital and wait five hours to get a tetanus jab. I never used to think about things like this when I was out, I just used to think about the pain in my feet. I think the Street Pastors are doing an amazing job. If someone would have been there to hand me a pair of flat shoes it would have stopped me from getting my injury.”