Setting Liverpool alight

LIB DEM LIVERPOOL is to spend £1 million pounds on improving the city's street lights to help make people feel safer.

Around £100,000 will be spent lighting up local parks while the balance of the cash will be targeted at communities with an above average crime rate.

Lib Dem Councillor Peter Millea, Liverpool's executive member for regeneration and transport said: "We are helping light up the lives of thousands of residents in Liverpool. Good street lighting can make a huge difference to people's lives. 

"It can help reduce road accidents, cut crime levels and make people feel safer as well as creating a brighter environment. Well lit walkways also assist the visually impaired and the less able bodied."

Lib Dem Council leader Warren Bradley said: "Improving the safety of our communities is a priority for the council. I am delighted that we have been able to find the cash to do this very important work."

Areas which will receive new lighting include:-

• Scotland Road, Everton 
  
• Earle Road and Lawrence Road, Wavertree 
  
• St. Domingo area in Anfield 
  
• Balmoral Grove area, Fairfield 
  
• Edgar Street, city centre 
  
• Epworth Street, city centre 
  
• Woodhouse Close and Fountains Close area, Kirkdale 

Sefton Park and Everton Park will also have lighting upgraded with the new street lighting in place by the end of March. 

Liverpool City Council has commissioned a piece of research in the Wavertree area to find out what locations and type of lighting would best benefit residents and businesses.

A study of residents in the Eastern Avenue area of Speke who had new lighting installed earlier this year found that:-

• Most residents preferred a 'white light '
• Light intrusion is a concern but residents like their doorways being lit up for security reasons
  
• Residents put light pollution as a higher priority than energy conservation
  
• Most people surveyed thought better street lighting would make them feel safer
  
• Residents thought that their new street lights were of a high quality and put up quickly.

In the last four years Liverpool has put up nearly 2,000 lighting columns.