The Trafford Council Budget for 2023/24 is due to be approved by the ruling Labour Group at the February 2023 Budget Council meeting. As well as increasing Council Tax by over 5%, Labour is also set to approve £300,000 of cuts to the street lighting budget. The Budget report regarding street lighting states that “The first proposal is to vary and reduce current lighting levels gradually during the evening and overnight hours in lower usage and lower risk areas by 20%”. ”The second proposal is to switch lights on gradually later in the evening and to switch lights off gradually earlier in the morning during the first and last hour of lighting, to contribute to energy saving.”
The council held a consultation on the proposals which attracted 18 responses, of which more respondents were opposed to the proposal than supported it. As the consultation response was so low, the council looked to a consultation on a similar proposal to cut street lighting in the 2021/22 Budget which had a greater response rate.
Commenting on the proposal, Tracey Haworth, one of the Conservative local election candidates for Davyhulme ward said “On the basis of a consultation, from 3 years ago, the council is proposing to proceed with the cuts to the 2023/24 street lighting budget. This year’s council consultation attracted only 18 responses which is far fewer than responded to a Conservative consultation on the same proposals, of whom the vast majority were opposed to the plans and many expressed concern in our survey about walking poorly-lit streets.
“Since the tragic murder of Sarah Everard and many other high profile cases of violence against women and girls, perceptions have changed about how safe it is to walk our streets at night.
“Residents should also be aware that after the murder of Sarah Everard, the minutes from the March 2021 Trafford Council meeting regarding previously agreed proposals to cut street lighting in 2021/22 highlight a U-turn from the Labour administration. The meeting minutes report the then Council Leader stating that “…the Council had been able to offset the saving it would had produced in a concurrent manner, which enabled him to confirm that there would be no cut to street lighting that year or in the future.” Why can’t the new Labour Council Leader keep the former Leader’s word and do the same?”
