Hundreds turn out in Kelvingrove to support #LightTheWay
Our #LightTheWay campaign calling on Glasgow City Council to install safety lighting in Glasgow's parks has been publicly backed by hundreds of people at a demonstration in Kelvingrove.
Our #LightTheWay campaign calling on Glasgow City Council to install safety lighting in Glasgow's parks has been publicly backed by hundreds of people at a demonstration in Kelvingrove.
We held a demonstration in Kelvingrove last night, in a bid to urge the city council to reconsider safety in public spaces.
People from across the city came together to support the campaign and call for change. A number of politicians and charities were also in attendance.
Our Senior reporter Natalie Crawford-Goodwin addressed the crowd and said: "This campaign started just four week ago, because last month, women trying to make their way home from work, university, from restaurants, their friends houses… were diverted through this dark park on their own by police because of road closures caused by Cop26."But this is not a new issue, and it’s not exclusive to Kelvingrove. After 5 o’clock in the evening for most of the year Glasgow’s parks are in pitch blackness.
"And for anyone who wishes to use them - not just women - they becoming ‘no-go’ areas. You are all here today to send a message to Glasgow City Council that that is not good enough.
"We want to use our city’s green spaces to their full potential and it’s up to them to make sure that we can do that safely and without fear.
"And whilst yesterdays motion put forward by Glasgow Labour, supported by the conservative did receive cross party support and is a very very welcome step forward, we will not give up until the next time we are standing here it’s well lit and safe!"
It’s time for Glasgow city council to light the way
Speakers at the demo included Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney, Frances Monghan from Wise Women, actor and self-defence coach Paul Donnelly and Holly Bruce from the YWCA.
Long running argument
It has been an issue in Glasgow in parks like Kelvingrove for a number of years, with women's groups and runners all calling for better lighting in the evenings.
The debate over lighting in the park was reignited during COP26 after a Police diversion forced women to walk through a dimly lit area of Kelvingrove to get home. Police Scotland issued an apology.
Generator powered lights were also put in place in some areas for the climate conference, something campaigners have been calling for years to improve safety and there were hopes this would be made permanent.
The local authority has said until recently that isn't possible because of environmental concerns.
Experts say lighting IS possible
However, we've been speaking to urban planners from Barton Willmore and lighting experts from Arup who say that it is doable and they're joining our campaign to make it happen.
Laura Phillips is an associate director with Arup and has designed lighting for parks in major cities across the world.
She told our senior reporter Natalie Crawford-Goodwin: “Why should our parks not be used at night? It’s a resource to the people of the city. With technology being what it is now, we can use low energy sources and allowing people to use the whole of the city at night is actually of huge benefit and the more people who are able to use the park at night the safer it will actually become.
“To be quite frank, it’s just a maintenance headache for them and that’s what’s driving that opinion that parks shouldn’t be used at night and I think it’s important to question that and say why can’t we have a night park? Why shouldn’t we be able to use parts of the park at night? And those are all very fair and valid questions and perfectly reasonable things to ask of them.
“You would look at the diagram of the park and say okay, these are the areas we need to light up, these are the parks that would need to be lit and you would keep others dark as a deterrent.
Local authority "reluctance" to use experts
“Unfortunately, this is a reluctance from local authorities sometimes to use specialist consultants and people that work in this space, which is a shame because when councils have done that you find it does make a big difference in these cities at these sorts of spots.
“There is no doubt that parks do need to be protected. There's biodiversity to be considered, there's ecology considerations, and there's even trees that do not respond to light. Certain species are very sensitive to it, so we're very aware of that.
“And so, when we design for parks we think about that very carefully in terms of where is appropriate. But lighting some of the sides of a park, some of the foliage and some specific routes really helps a sense of safety.
“So although there is a big piece of work that would need to be done, it is entirely possible to light up a park like Kelvingrove.”
Consensus
Mirella Ainsworth, an urban planner from Barton Willmore agrees and has been explaining how it might be possible to light paths through our city centre parks.
When asked if it was possible to retrofit a park like Kelvingrove with environmentally friendly lighting she said: "Yes it is. You can keep the light levels low and you target it on specific place.
“It just needs to be carefully designed, well directed and focussed lighting. Lighting levels can be relatively low. You don’t need to flood light the whole park, you just need to focus the lighting on the areas where people will be moving.
“With recent events that have happened, women are getting more and more worried about going out at night and feeling unsafe and there’s no better time for councils to start pushing this through.”
Full cross-party support
Lighting for city parks is to be investigated by the council after concerns were raised over the safety of people — particularly women and children — using them after dark.
Glasgow City Council has committed to look into providing sensitive lighting solutions in parks, which consider both equality and climate impacts.
Welcoming the move, local Conservative councillor Thomas Kerr said:
"I welcome today's vote in the council which moves the Light The Way campaign forward a little bit."
"We had a debate today and there will be a paper coming forward to a committee to explain in more detail how the council can begin to implement some of the solutions to try and lighten up our parks."
"That's a welcome climb down from the administration."
"It was only about a month ago that they were saying no one should be going into parks when they are dark - which is bizarre but now they are climbing down and saying there is an issue there."
" The Light The Way campaign has done so much work, just over the past few weeks."
"It has managed to bring down Susan Aitken and the administration to supporting them now by the looks of it."
"I look forward to joining loads of people in Kelvingrove tomorrow at their rally, let's keep the pressure on."
Councillor Jill Brown, Labour, has now secured support for a motion which called for a report on the “necessary infrastructure to provide sensitive lighting solutions in our parks”.
Speaking at a full council meeting, she said Glasgow would be dark by 3.44pm today, when the council meeting would be “far from over” and workers “far from the end of their working day”.
“Glasgow does not have accessible spaces in our city for every woman, child and man after dark,” she added.
The councillor said the council must not “shy away” from making changes to our parks “which particularly help women and children to feel safe after dark”.
“As Rape Crisis Scotland has said, it is really important to be clear that we should be able to go where we want to go.”
Cllr Brown said the impact on wildlife must be recognised, but these “are not either/or questions”.
“We know that solutions are out there, this has been done in cities across the world.”
Her colleague Eva Murray, the Labour group’s deputy leader, said: “How can we be that proud Dear Green Place when our parks are not safe or accessible?
“This cannot become a people’s safety versus climate change or biodiversity debate, both issues are far too important.”
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