A SAFE haven will soon be offered to women across Furness who desperately need to escape an abusive relationship.  

Furness has been given £47,000 to make sure victims of domestic abuse have somewhere safe to go in an emergency. 

This money comes from a £3.5m government grant which has been ring-fenced to help support women who need to immediately leave an abusive situation. 

Barrow Borough Council were successful in their bid to secure the funding and the project, titled the New Lives Project, was discussed yesterday at the Housing Management Forum at Barrow Town Hall. 

The whole committee at Barrow Borough Council threw their support behind the initiative with councillor Bil Mckenna saying he thought it was "absolutely fantastic". 

The forum have agreed that they will be identifying two units of accommodation to be used for supported housing. 

At the moment no specific accommodation of that type is available in Barrow. 

The money will allow the council and the Women's Community Matters charity to protect anyone facing the threat of abuse in their home. 

Rebecca Rawlings of Women’s Community Matters said:

“This is a great opportunity for us to work with the local council to provide support for vulnerable women who are victims of domestic violence. 

"We are pleased the council are taking a proactive role in bringing additional services to the town and are looking forward to continuing to improve our collective services for vulnerable women in the area.”

At the council meeting, Cllr Kevin Hamiton, chairman of the Housing Management Forum thanked everyone involved in securing the bid and said that he was "very proud that we can actually do this". 

He added: "I’m really pleased we’ve been able to access this funding to support female victims of domestic violence in the Barrow and Furness area."

Barrow Borough Council is one of 46 local authorities getting a share of this fund. This will mean that there will be 710 new bed spaces in a range of safe accommodation across the country. 

The New Lives Project aims to provide a safe and stable residence for those women that need to immediately leave situations of abuse for their own safety and that of their children.