Councils across the UK have detailed their plans to dim or completely turn off streetlights during the early hours of the morning – but the move has been criticised for putting women’s safety at risk
Plans put forward by local councils across the UK to dim or completely switch off their streetlights have been slammed by women’s safety campaigners.
The cost-cutting measures are being rolled out by cash-strapped local authorities as a way to save money on energy – but fears are being raised that they could put women and girls at risk.
In London, both Havering and Croydon Borough recently announced that they would dim their lights during certain hours at night, while in Cornwall thousands of lights will be turned off after midnight when “most residents are asleep”.
Officials in the rural county said safety risk assessments had been carried out to decide which lights would be kept on.
A statement from Richard Willams-Pears, Cornwall Council portfolio holder for transport late last year said: “We won’t be compromising on safety as where risk assessments have shown that streetlights are still beneficial, they will be kept on, or will be dimmed once the new LED bulbs are fitted.”
In the capital, the London Borough of Havering will lower the brightness of 4,000 lights on its main roads between midnight and 5am, while Croydon Borough Council said their move to reduce brightness by 50% would save them £1 million a year. Leader of Havering Council Ray Morgon told a budget meeting earlier this month that the borough was “effectively bankrupt”, and would soon be forced into issuing a formal section 114 notice unless it received a £54million loan from the Government. “Part-night lighting initiatives” are already in place in many residential areas of Southampton.
But Our Streets Now – which campaigns to end public sexual harassment in the UK – has claimed that the decision to cut down on street lighting shows that women’s safety is merely an “afterthought” for local councils. A spokesperson from Our Streets Now told The Daily Telegraph: “It’s disappointing, but unsurprising, to hear that women’s safety has been an afterthought in plans to cut costs. We know from research, from our members, and from the experiences of women and girls up and down the country that low and no street lighting poses a risk to their safety.”
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which supports victims of stalking, meanwhile said that surveys showed that most people believed their safety to be “more at risk in areas where dimming or switching off of streetlights occurs”. Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council, said: “In our budget savings, we are proposing plans to dim the street lights on our main roads between 12am and 5am. Street lighting on residential roads would remain on full power and brightness.
“This has been consulted on as part of the budget consultation where nearly 4,000 people responded. With regards to the question around dimming lights, the majority of respondents to that question felt the street lighting proposals would have little or no impact on either them personally (59%) or the community (42%). Indeed some respondents felt the proposals would have a positive impact on themselves (24%) and on the community (29%) than a negative impact.
“There has been some concern expressed during consultation that this may lead to an increase in some crime but officers who have been involved in similar schemes in other boroughs found no evidence of this. We will of course consult with the police and relevant partners to ensure lighting that supports CCTV provision is not compromised.” The Mirror have contacted Croydon Borough Council and Cornwall Council for comment.
