LightTheWay: Campaign calls on council to make lighting a priority

Kelvingrove's Stewart Memorial Fountain was lit up last night in the names of all those who want to see safety lighting installed. Our Light the Way campaign took over the park for its second annual demo, calling on Glasgow City Council to step up efforts to light up paths and create safer walking routes.

Stewart Memorial Fountain lit up

The #LightTheWay campaign, originally created and championed by Clyde 1 & 2 in December 2021, was launched again in November this year following GCC’s failure to deliver on promises to install safer lighting, affecting public safety across Glasgow.

Local councillor Jill Brown joined efforts on the #LightTheWay campaign last year, securing the decision and promising the “necessary infrastructure” would be installed to provide the appropriate lighting in Glasgow’s parks, however since then no progress has been made.

Natalie Goodwin of Clyde 1 was joined by Glasgow Labour Councillor Eva Murray and Glasgow Greens Councillor Holly Bruce at yesterday’s event who all promised to put more pressure on the local authority to prioritise the issue.

Failure to deliver

Natalie Goodwin, chief reporter at Clyde 1said: “Glasgow City Council has made promises to ensure Glasgow’s parks are well-lit, safe areas for public use, but have failed to deliver.

“The event in Kelvingrove Park has given us a renewed sense of hope that the Council will be more proactive and realise that the resolution of this issue is of the utmost importance to the people of the city.

"With support from cross-party councillors, we are positive that we will start to see effective lighting installed throughout popular walking routes in Glasgow’s public parks, where currently the lack of lighting is creating alarming safety concerns.

“On behalf of Clyde, I would like to thank everyone who has shown their support for the #LightTheWay campaign by attending the event and signing the petition, which continues to grow.”

To sign the petition here.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Well, maybe a glimmer...

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.

Labour councillor Jill Brown said: “The good news is that almost a year to the day that the late that we motion was unanimously passed, it was confirmed in committee that lighting will be provided and parks, it was also acknowledged that the consultation process could have been more inclusive and that going forward, there will be more consultation including with the Radio Clyde campaign so the team who actually started this whole process will get to input into it, which is great news.

“My concerns arising from the committee though are that there was no funding allocated to providing the lighting and the parks and given that 86% of the respondents who fed into the consultation, said that they either didn't go to the park after dark, or they felt unsafe in the park after dark is deeply worrying about your safety is on the priority list for this council.

“And with the cost of living crisis really biting, being able to walk safely home instead of incurring travel costs would really make a difference for very many people.

“Even if funding is identified, and at best, there will be lighting in Kelvingrove Park for Christmas 2024 but far more likely, it will be 2025 and that means it'll have taken four years to Light the Way through the park.

“So is there light at the end of the tunnel? Well, maybe a glimmer, but there certainly isn't any light in the park.”

Council to deliver further report next April

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “Our engagement sessions with stakeholders and community representatives have provided a clear steer on how to deal with the issue of introducing more lighting into parks.

“The evidence we committed to gather in relation to the three parks involved in a pilot programme will now help inform a series of workshops that will consider a range of technical issues in much more detail.

“Issues to be gone through will include potential routes or areas to be lit, the type of lighting to be used, ecological impact and any tree management work that may be required.

“A further report on the outcome of the forthcoming workshops will be given to our environment committee in April next year.

“Funding for any project has still to be identified and any work to remove any vegetation will be undertaken out with bird nesting season.”

Light the Way demo 2021

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