Three-quarters of residents in a survey have shown their support for plans to install new lighting on Parker's Piece in Cambridge.
The area is popular with both tourists and people who live in the region. However, while four-fifths of people said they felt safe there during the day, a considerable three-fifths said they did not during the hours of darkness, Cambridge News reported, with women and children feeling most at risk.
While being 'scared of the dark' is a trait common among young children, feeling uneasy in dark spots when out and about at night is evidently a fear harboured by many adults too. There have been complaints from students about the underlit area concerning assault and indecent exposures, as well as one particular case of aggressive assault in March 2011.
The fact is that when an area is well-lit, it can help to curb crime rates, as troublemakers are no longer concealed by the cover of darkness, making it riskier to get up to no good. Consequently, this helps law-abiding citizens to feel safer when going about their business at night.
Following the trial lighting installed between Reality Checkpoint and Melbourne Place, the council authorities are now expected to draw up plans for permanent fixtures, as more than half of respondents said they felt safe with the lights in place.
City councillor Tim Bick confessed that many respondents said the authorities could do an even better job than the lights used in the trial.
Anybody concerned about safety around their domestic or commercial property could be worrying unnecessarily, as it would be very easy to install a simple outdoor lighting solution to ensure security.
Motion detectors can be used so that lights do not need to run throughout the night and LED bulbs could be used so that they need not be replaced often, as they boast a longevity of up to 50,000 hours.
