Victory! New lights installed on Jesus Green

Following The Tab‘s ‘Let there be Light’ campaign last week, the city council have installed temporary street lighting along the newly widened cycleway on Jesus Green.

This comes in light of a series of sex attacks that occurred across Cambridge over the last few weeks, including on Jesus Green and Christ’s Pieces.

According to the city council website, the lighting along the main avenue was intended to come as part of a £200,000 cambridge-wide cycleway improvement initiative due for completion in December.

New streetlights on Jesus Green

In response to public demand, however, temporary streetlights were installed on Jesus Green this Tuesday to be replaced by ‘heritage-style’ columns during the first week of December.

The Tab‘s petition gained over 1,500 signatures in two days and received coverage from the BBC and ITV. It has most recently received the backing of Cambridge MP Julian Huppert.

Carina O’Reilly, Executive Councillor for City Centre and Public Places, said of the new lighting, “I am pleased to see that temporary lighting on Jesus Green is to be installed shortly, as this has been of real concern to residents.”

The Tab believes this success demonstrates that the city and county council are now listening to their constituents. However, this is not the end of our campaign. If the petition can gain 3,000 signatures, the county council will have to debate the motion.

The path between Lower Park Street and the toilets on Jesus Green

The new street lighting on Jesus Green will only light one of the main pedestrian paths. Some of the other paths remain desperately under-lit, including areas where attacks took place recently.

The path between Lower Park Street and the toilets on Jesus Green has only one streetlamp along its duration and has been described as “particularly bad” by Cllr Damien Tunnacliffe who represents the West Chesterford ward.

We would also like to see better lighting on Christ’s Pieces, which we feel is currently very under-lit and where other attacks have taken place recently.

Sign and share the petition to continue putting pressure on the county council 

https://www.change.org/p/cambridgeshire-county-council-bring-light-to-cambridge-and-make-our-streets-safer