Petition launched urging street lights to be turned on at night

CAMPAIGNERS say having the streetlights across Warwickshire off at night ‘puts women in danger and makes a walk home at night into something terrifying.’

They say that in light of the tragic murder of Sarah Everard they want the street lights back on at night.

An online petition has been launched to try and force a change of heart by Warwickshire County Council.

Currently, across Warwickshire, street lights are turned off in many communities between midnight and 5.30am on Sunday to Thursday, and on Friday and Saturdays, the lights go off at 1am and come back on at 6.30am.

But a bid is now being made for them to be left on throughout the night.

The petition, launched by Chloe Fojtik, is now live on change.org and seeks to get 2,500 signatures.

It reads: “I’m starting this petition to ask here to turn the streetlights back on overnight. After recent events of crimes against women having the streetlights off puts women in danger and makes a walk home at night into something terrifying and something women dread.”

Many attempts have been made in the past to get Shire Hall to change to the street lighting part-night operation.

The latest was in 2019 when Labour members at the county council appealed for the change. This plea fell on deaf ears but the county council said that if there were areas where there were specific concerns they would look into them. At the time of publication there were almost 2,000 signatures on the petition.