Lights could be installed in Robroyston Park after a councillor called for safety to be improved in the “high risk” area.
Cllr Audrey Dempsey, Labour, said a “well used route” through the park, from Rockfield Road to Asda, is “extremely dark” and asked whether funding could be used to tackle the issue. She said lighting could also encourage people to reduce their car use.
Members of the Springburn/Robroyston area partnership met yesterday to discuss how they plan to use their £81,800 share of a £1.5m parks fund, which was included in the council’s budget for this year.
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They also considered how to spend £1m allocated to the ward for repairs and improvements to “neighbourhood infrastructure”.
Cllr Dempsey said there is a “main route from Rockfield Road that goes directly through to Asda” where people are “coming and going continuously”.
“People who work up at the retail park walk from there all the way through,” she said. “There is no lighting up there and when you get over the brim of the hill, it is thick with trees overlapping and extremely dark and creepy. At nighttime, it is a high risk area.
“I know it’s within the park, but it is like a street for some, because they are travelling back and forth at various times of the day. It’s a connecting route from Barmulloch straight through to Robroyston. Is there scope either in the parks budget or in this budget to include that? To get some form of lighting in it to make it that bit safer.”
A council official said the “idea of potentially looking at putting in street lighting in public parks” could be considered under the £1m infrastructure fund. “It is probably more applicable to this fund rather than the parks, due to the size of the budget the parks have going forward,” he said.
Cllr Dempsey added: “I think it’s something worth considering because a lot of people have brought it to my attention. Particularly if we want to get less people using their cars from scheme to scheme.
“It is a well used park and the maintenance of it isn’t great, but for the purpose of people getting back and forward to their jobs, for getting their shopping and for getting the kids to school, I think it would really be worth considering putting some form of lighting in there.”
There are three recommended options for the use of the parks funding. These are providing £24,200 towards the refurbishment of the Robroyston Play Area, using £48,600 for work in Springburn Park, which could include children’s play, tree planting and active travel, and £9,000 to improve the entrance to Robroyston Park from Quarrywood Avenue.
The £1m neighbourhood infrastructure fund can be used on initiatives to mitigate littering or fly-tipping as well as carriageway resurfacing options, solutions to address deterioration in our footways, street lighting, traffic signals, drainage infrastructure and street furniture as well as provide community led improvements to all open space.
In the Springburn/Robroyston ward, suggestions include £100,200 carriageway works at Rye Road, £50,000 on upgrading traffic signal equipment, including for visually impaired people, at Springburn Road/Cairn Street and £245,000 on upgrading street lighting. CCTV could also be provided to deal with fly-tipping.
A full list of potential projects can be seen at: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/councillorsandcommittees/viewDoc.asp?c=P62AFQDNZLZ3DXT1T1
