#LightTheWay: Three parks considered for lighting following Clyde News campaign

Three Glasgow parks have been selected as testing grounds for community discussions on park safety and to review different approaches for lighting in parks across the city.

Following a council motion that gave a commitment to examine in detail the issue of lighting in parks, Kelvingrove Park, Queen’s Park and Cranhill Park have been chosen as pilot areas where a diverse range of stakeholders will be brought together to gather evidence on what might be an appropriate approach for each park.

It is the latest step for our #LightThe Way campaign, calling on Glasgow City Council to reverse its position on park lighting and light the main routes in Glasgow city centre parks to keep people safe.

The events will be managed through the Placemaking process and will open to organisations and groups working on issues such as violence against women and equalities, biodiversity and relevant research and lighting as well as including Police Scotland, local elected members and friends of park groups.

'No straight forward answer'

Councillor Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, believes the Placemaking approach to be a measured way forward on a sensitive and complex issue.

She said: “Placemaking is a process that encourages collaboration between different stakeholders and asks those stakeholders to find common ground for the benefit of their shared community. With Greenspace Scotland as hosts of the Placemaking events for the three pilot parks we have a chance to look closely at the range of options and look to achieve the right balance for the different communities that use these three open spaces.

“It was clear from the debate at Full Council that there was not a straightforward answer to the question of how we should approach the issue of lighting in our parks. Long term commitments have been made to protect the city’s biodiversity, but there is also is no doubt that Glasgow’s park should be accessible and safe for all users.

“We fully anticipate that lighting will be on the agenda at the different Placemaking events. But we expect other measures such as design and maintenance that can address concerns about park safety will also be looked at. There is unlikely to be one-size that fits every park in Glasgow but testing out the views of stakeholders for the three pilot parks can show us a way forward.”

Paper to go before councillors later this month

The proposal for three pilot parks is set out in a paper to be presented to the council’s Environmental, Sustainability and Carbon Reduction Policy Committee on March 7. The paper indicates that evidence gathered from the three Placemaking events will be collated into a future report to allow the committee to consider the issue in more detail.

In the March 7 committee paper, a number of issues are brought forward for considerations.

These include:

• the impact of perceptions of safety on physical activity and participation in public life, particularly in relation to women and girls.

• how the full participation of woman and girls within public spaces will involve Placemaking, criminal justice initiatives and other responses.

• the national Secured by Design initiative which seeks to design out crime and tends to put lighting in the context of passive surveillance of locations from overlooking households and streets.

• a £15.5m investment in Glasgow Green which introduced lighting and CCTV but also including widened paths and significant tree removal works to create a more secure environment.

• how the daytime benefits of a park such as vegetation, trees, peace and quiet can be seen differently at night.

• the impact of urban lighting on nocturnal species. Further research is being undertaken to understand how different lighting options may mitigate this impact.

• how some parks that are rich in woodland, wetlands and pollinator-supporting vegetation may not be suitable for night-time use.

• the impact on the ability to experience dark skies such as the Go Stargazing initiative in Glasgow Botanic Gardens.

Lighting is currently found within some parks, usually around games courts, for lighting up buildings, monuments and other heritage infrastructure, and also along a number of paths. Lighting for games courts is usually switched off at 10pm to avoid use at times of day that might be considered anti-social.

Long running argument

Park lighting 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 had said it wasn't possible because of environmental concerns.

Experts say lighting IS possible

However, we spoke to urban planners from Barton Willmore and lighting experts from Arup who said that it was possible.

Laura Phillips is an associate director with Arup and has designed lighting for parks in major cities across the world.

She told our chief 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 agreed and explained 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

At the start of the campaign, 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 original position came 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.”

Join the campaign

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

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