The Daily Express newspaper has launched a ‘Safer Streets crusade’ to ‘demand councils light up our streets to make them safer’.
The campaign has been backed by Alicia Kearns, shadow minister for preventing violence against women and girls.
It is urging councils to invest in well-lit walking and travelling routes and to roll back from dimming streetlights at night.
“Councils should prioritise well-lit routes where women walk, travel and wait, near transport hubs and known crime hotspots,” Kearns wrote.
“The Daily Express is right to push for smarter action that genuinely improves safety,” she added.
The paper also cited a poll of 2,000 adults by lock brand Ultion that concluded seven in 10 women feel unsafe after dark, and three in four actively change their behaviour to feel safe.
At the same time, just over half of English councils with responsibility for streetlights had dimmed or switched them off overnight in the last decade, according to a BBC investigation in 2024.
In an editorial to accompany the launch of the campaign, the newspaper referenced the five-year anniversary of the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.
“While it would be preposterous to suggest streetlights will prevent deviants and predators carrying out evil acts it is undeniably the case that well-lit routes have a crucial part to play in ensuring that women and girls feel that society takes their safety and well-being seriously. And that is priceless,” the paper added.
The campaign has come as, separately, Devon County Council has said it intends to press on with permanent dimming or switching off of streetlights overnight, after a successful year-long trial.
According to the BBC, the council has said using less energy on street lighting is saving it about £270,000 a year and reducing carbon emissions by about 200 tonnes a year.
The councillor in charge of lighting said the move “strikes the right balance” between efficiency and public safety, the BBC reported.
And The Guardian newspaper has reported how a national park in Belgium is turning off ‘pointless’ streetlights as part of a radical project to preserve wildlife in one of Europe’s most light-polluted countries.
The Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse National Park in Wallonia is to spend €308,000 to restore night-time darkness between now and August, the paper said, with including the removal of dozens of streetlights.
