Light the Way: Council accused of dragging feet on park lighting

Women are facing another winter of walking through dark, unlit parks, as Glasgow City Council are accused of 'kicking the can down the road' on safety lighting.

Author: Natalie GoodwinPublished 31st Oct 2022
Last updated 31st Oct 2022

Women are facing another winter of walking through dark, unlit parks, as Glasgow City Council are accused of 'kicking the can down the road' on lighting.

It comes as the last of three consultations on the matter takes place at Kelvingrove tonight.

The local authority commissioned Green Space Scotland to investigate the possibility of lighting safe routes through three city parks following our campaign. Those parks were Kelvingrove, Cranhill and Queen's Park.

Consolations not open to the public

The Greenspace Scotland consultations have not been open to members of the public, and have been by invitation only to select stakeholders.

Labour councillor Jill Brown's been critical of this. She said: "I do think that it's fine to talk about consultation but it really is about making sure that there is proper consultation, that any interested parties are able to participate in that and particularly because the parks that they're looking at are used by people from across the city, not just those who live in the immediate vicinity, so the more views, the better."

“For example, without Radio Clyde and the Light the Way campaign, then we may not be where we are right now but yet for you not to be involved in consultation the process, given the huge number of people that campaign represented seems odd."

Nearly a year since issue was first raised

The issue of park lighting in the city has been a long running argument, which was reignited last year 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.

Councillor Brown continued: “It is almost a year, since the Light the Way demonstration in Kelvingrove Park before the Glasgow City Council full council meeting. And really, I'm just so disappointed at how little progress has been made in that time.

“In particular, I had negotiated really hard with the other parties to make sure that we had a timetable for council officers to return to elected representatives with a plan for bringing lighting to certain parks. And what happened is we received the holding paper and we will receive a further holding paper in November. And I've been advised that we will then have a further, further paper at some point in the future. And I don't think any of us thought this time last year, it would take this long to receive effectively, a couple of updates.

“Council officers do need to do investigations, and they do need to consult with local people to put in place a practical solution for lighting in parks and that does take time, but I think it didn't need to take this long and it absolutely should have been a more inclusive process.

Light the Way campaign

No longer just a safety issue

The issue of lighting in parks is no longer just a safety issue, with the cost of living crisis forcing more people than ever to walk from A to B late at night, rather than paying for buses or taxis.

Councillor Brown said: “We have a cost of living crisis, we have a climate emergency and yet, still, we aren't opening up our parks and the hours of darkness to allow people to travel to and from work or for kids to go out and play. And you know, that does mean that for some people, they are going to have to use other forms of transport at a cost both financially and to the environment. And to be a year on and not have made any progress on this does feel like you know the can has been kicked down the road on this.

“I think that we really could have done so much more in that time. And we still of course don't have a date by which there will be any lights in any of the city's parks. I do feel that we really need to see a sense of urgency from the administration on this point. It was and remains really important to local people that they can't access parks after the hours of darkness. And I really hope that we will start to see a clear pathway and a timeline for lighting to be provided in parks.”

Council says 'we've done what we promised'

A spokesman for the council said: “We are currently implementing the plan previously reported to our environment committee that proposed an evidence-led approach to lighting solutions in parks.

“Three parks were identified for inclusion in a pilot programme and engagement sessions with community reps and other stakeholders have already been held for Cranhill Park and Queen’s Park with a Kelvingrove session to be held in the coming days.

“To understand the challenges with each park and to generate discussion around specific locations, types of lighting and other possible measures, it was agreed some part of the sessions should take place in darkness in each park.

“These sessions were scheduled for October when such an after-dark setting could reasonably be achieved and this approach appears to have been well received by those present.

“A report on the engagement sessions will be tabled at environment committee in November and more detailed work around specific measures for each park will also be undertaken.

“The approach being taken will allow for detailed consideration of a wide ranging issues such as biodiversity and public safety and will help to form an approach that’s suitable for each park.”

Glasgow to adopt feminist city planning approach

Glasgow has become the first city in the UK to adopt a ‘feminist town planning approach’ in a bid to make Glasgow work for women.

At Glasgow City Council's full council meeting last week, councillors backed a motion from Green Councillor Holly Bruce which will see Scotland’s largest city making women central to “all aspects of planning, public realm design, policy development and budgets”.

Experts say lighting IS possible

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.