For many residents of Southampton, walking through the city
after nightfall is an intimidating and dangerous prospect. Now that
there is absolutely no lighting on many residential streets
throughout the city, this has become so dangerous that it has
effectively imposed a 1am curfew for numerous people. It must be
acknowledged that Southampton is home to two universities and
therefore a large number of students reside in areas such as
Portswood, where there is now very little street lighting. As many
students enjoy the city's nightlife and often walk home alone
between 1 and 4am, it is now unacceptably dangerous to do so and we
believe that the Council has a duty of care to the people of
Southampton to prevent unnecessary dangers such as lack of
lighting.
There are several risks associated with this reduction in lighting.
For example: people, particularly women, are even more at risk of
sexual harassment or assault; using a phone torch to navigate draws
attention to one as a target; there are many potential trip
hazards; one cannot see the edge of the curb when crossing the road
and wheelchair users and visually impaired people would find it
even more challenging to use the streets. It is for these reasons
that we feel it is essential to keep all streetlights switched on
for the whole duration of the hours of darkness.
This ePetition ran from 12/05/2023 to 18/07/2023 and has now finished.
3 people signed this ePetition.