PLANS by the town council to purchase additional lighting for the King George V Park – to improve safety for those using the park in the dark – are moving forward.
At the full town council meeting on Monday 20th December, councillors received a short update from a design consultant on the lighting options available, which was commissioned following a town council meeting in October.
Following the update and a discussion between councillors regarding which areas of the park they considered needing lighting, Melksham’s mayor, cllr Simon Crundell said, “I put forward the motion that we approve the purchase of six-metre swan neck columns, in keeping with lighting columns in the town, not exceeding the cost of £60,000. It was almost a year ago today that we previously resolved to do this. We have debated this time and time again. We need to get on with delivering this.”
However, not all councillors were in support of this plan.
Deputy mayor, cllr Sue Mortimer said, “I don’t really know why we would want to encourage people to use the park more in the evening. Lighted areas in a park at night does encourage anti-social behaviour and that concerns me. It is not a park that you would be wanting to walk around at night. We need to be careful to do what our residents wanted. I have been speaking to residents quite a lot and not one of them has said they want lights all around the park.”
Speaking in support of additional lighting Cllr Tom Price added, “It is dark at 5.30pm. We are not just talking about lighting up the park at midnight when anti-social behaviour is likely to be going on necessarily, people leave work at 5.30pm or need to walk their dogs, and the park is dark.”
Melksham Town Council will now move forward to installing additional lighting to light up the inner circle of the park, this being the main thoroughfare around the park.
