#LightTheWay: Clyde News launches park lighting campaign

Expert urban planners are exclusively telling Clyde News there is no reason safety lighting could not be installed in Glasgow's parks.

We are launching our Light The Way campaign today, calling for safety lighting to be installed in our city parks.

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 it 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.”

Council says parks aren't for night time use

Colin Edgar Head of Communications at Glasgow City Council said: "In general, we don't light our parks at night and we don't encourage people to use our parks at night except for temporary lighting for events.

"We take the view that our parks are not places for people to be in the evening and that's really shown by the fact that when people were wrongly diverted there on Monday, it really wasn't the right place for them to be.

"The kind of extensive lighting that would be needed to make a park feel completely safe to someone in the hours of darkness is really not compatible with the nature that needs to live and thrive in our parks.

“We market and design them as day time spaces and design other well-lit active travel routes for people to use in the evening."

Calls for a U-turn

The council's position has also come under fire from leading women's safety campaigners including the Chief Executive of Rape Crisis Scotland Sandy Bindley.

"It's the least we can expect from our public authorities to take reasonable steps to make places safe, particularly for women, when we are going about our business,” she told us.

"We're not talking about going into parks at midnight, but this is Scotland in the winter where it is dark from about 4pm.

"Is the council really saying that public spaces should be no-go areas for women outwith working hours? I think that's unacceptable.

"So many women who've experienced sexual crime can fee responsible for what's happened to them, or to question their own actions. and I think it's really important to be clear that we should be able to go where we want to.

"I do really feel the council should reflect on the tone of their messaging in this context. What are they saying about effectively making parts no-go areas for women after 4pm in winter in Scotland.”

First Minster calls for talks

The First Minister's calling for talks to resolve the row about lighting and safety in Glasgow's parks.

She told us: "We all have a common interest in reaching the right balance about how we want these public spaces used, and safety - especially for women - is of paramount importance."

Join the campaign

You can add your voice the campaign by tweeting us @RadioClydeNews using #LightTheWay.

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