Role of street lighting in making civic environment safer for women acknowledged after Derry sex attacks
Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd has acknowledged the role street lighting can play in providing a safer civic environment in response to the concerns of women following recent sexually motivated attacks in Derry.
Foyle MLA Mark H. Durkan pressed the minister on the issue at Stormont on Monday.
“Does the Minister agree that street lighting plays an integral role, not just in road safety but in community safety?
"In light of recent events and what we have heard from many women about how unsafe they feel, does the Minister have any plans to improve response times, particularly where there are long-standing outages or delays?” asked the SDLP representative.
Mr. O’Dowd encouraged Mr. Durkan to contact his private office about any specific areas where this was an issue. He acknowledged improved lighting has a role in making for a safer civic environment.
“I will ensure that they are followed up. Street lighting provides a safer environment for people to use pathways, walkways, active travel routes etc.
"The Member is right to raise the concerns about safety for women, particularly after recent events in Derry. I assure you that my Department will play whatever role it can in ensuring that the street lighting that is in place is serviced and maintained properly,” said the minister.
Mr. Durkan asked the minister to provide an update on efforts to ensure timely street lighting repairs in general are carried out across the North.
The minister advised that in the current financial year he has been able to allocate funding to enable his Department to provide a full street lighting maintenance service.
Outage repairs, he said, will generally be carried out within the established target of five working days.
"My Department has replaced approximately 80 per cent of its sodium lighting stock with LED units, which, as well as delivering sufficient reductions in electricity consumption and carbon production, has greatly reduced the number of street lighting outages on the network due to the longer operating lifetime of LEDs. I will continue to seek funding to convert the remainder of the network at the earliest opportunity,” said Mr. O’Dowd.