Students call for city's street lights to stay on later

Students are calling for street lights to remain switched on until 03:00 in more areas of a city.

Street lights currently only remain on in some areas of Southampton, such as main roads, shopping areas, high-crime areas, CCTV zones and safe routes.

Millie Fear is petitioning Southampton City Council to also leave lights on in student and residential areas to ensure people feel safer when walking to and from work and to better suit student life.

Councillor Toqeer Kataria said a review of lighting would include consultation with both of the city's universities.

University of Southampton student Fear, who has started a petition on the issue that has been signed by more than 300 people, said: "I've spoken to a lot of my friends about it and we're all kind of having the same problem.

"We're returning from either a night out or a late night in the library or even some of us are coming back from our jobs and it's completely pitch black.

"I can't see the end of the road. I can't see a couple of metres in front of me. So, it's definitely feeling like quite a big threat to our safety."

The part-night lighting scheme was introduced in April 2023 and in December of that year it was decided street lights would be turned off between 01:00 and 05:30 in most residential roads outside the city centre.

The scheme was created to deal with the national rising costs of energy, reduce CO2 emissions and bring ecological benefits.

In 2022, it was reported that turning off the lights would save £450,000 per year.

Fear said that after moving to Southampton from Bristol, it was difficult to know which streets were safe or not: "Bristol I know so well. I've lived there my whole life. So you know the areas that are safe and the areas that aren't, a bit better.

"Coming to Southampton and not knowing it and having to figure out where's safe and where's not has been a bit of a challenge.

"If there was something to happen, I wouldn't be sure on where's the best place for me to go."

She said she does understand the money the council saves during the switch-off hours "which is partly why I'm petitioning to get them only on until three in the morning".

"I'm not saying have them on until 05:00. I think kind of from 01:00 until 03:00 is when we still get lots of students coming home.

"So I understand they're saving a lot of money but I'm just asking for a few more hours and I think you can't really put a price on student safety," she added.

The petition calls for key student walking routes to be added to the official exemption list to keep street lighting active until 03:00 instead of 01:00.

Fear would also like the council to collaborate with the University of Southampton Students' Union (SUSU) to map out key walking routes that require continuous illumination.

Kataria, cabinet member for communities, safety and leisure, said: "I think it's really important that we listen to those who have filled in the petition and those that are showing the concerns they have when they go out late, especially women and girls.

"Part of our review of street lighting, I think that's going to be a conversation we're going to be having with our stakeholders in the city, which includes the University of Southampton and Solent University.

"We recognise that students are a large population in Southampton. They make about 15% of the Southampton population and their voice is really, really important."