4 October 2000

COUNCIL SWITCHED ON TO PARK LIGHTING

A Park Lighting Policy has been adopted by Auckland City’s Parks and Recreation Committee. Council officers will now assess the priority areas proposed by six of the ten Community Boards and advise the Boards of the outcomes. A park lighting strategy will be prepared and reported back to the Committee by the end of June 2001.

The decision is in response to the tragic murder of Kylie Jones in a Glenn Innes park earlier this year. Councillor David Hay, chairman of the Parks and Recreation Committee, said that although it is vital for people to realise that better lighting can help to reduce crime, lighting alone will not necessarily create safe parks. ”Lighting has the potential to give people a false sense of security, placing them at risk,” he says. ”However it is also a recognised fact that well-lit areas do tend to have less criminal activities happening both at night and during the daylight hours.”

Of the Council’s 800 parks and reserves on the isthmus and within the Hauraki Gulf islands 79 have lighting to some extent. Costs of lighting including construction, lights and fixtures, cabling and labour it is estimated at $150.00 per linear metre. However, this does not include resource consent applications, lighting design and transformers.

The strategy’s purpose will be to look at the overall lighting in all parks and address specific needs for certain parks. “Having a Park Lighting Policy will make sure we have consistency in lighting in all of our parks as well as making sure that the parks that really warrant new or improved lighting will get lit,” said Councillor Hay.

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ENDS

For further information
Pleases contact
Councillor David Hay
Chairman
Parks and Recreation Committee
Tel: w) 6201647 h) 6265008

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