Bolton town centre lighting improvement plans explored

This comes after long running concerns amongst the public about light and shade around Victoria Square and the town centre, particularly on darker winter days and nights.

Bolton Council has now launched a public consultation asking where around the town needs more investment in lighting.

Cabinet member for stronger communities Cllr Rabiya Jiva said: “I hope as many people as possible will be able to give us their views on this.

“Whatever recommendations and decisions are ultimately made, I can assure people that safety will not be compromised.

Streetlights could be dimmed elsewhere around the borough (Image: Newsquest)

“This also means that we will be hoping to identify areas where people have been concerned about anti-social behaviour or where there may be any additional safety needs.”

She added: “In areas like these we hope that lighting can be increased, so our recent discussions around lighting have not just been about dimming.”

The proposals for improving lighting around the town centre comes after budget reports proposed dimming 37,000 of the 40,000 streetlights elsewhere around Bolton to save money.

A report put before the authority claimed that this could save around £400,000.

But responses from members of the public raised concerns about the effect this could have on their safety and on crime around the borough.

Questions have also previously been raised about how dark the town centre can become at night and the effects this can have on people’s safety.

In October 2022 the then leader of Bolton Council Cllr Martyn Cox said that the authority had applied to the Shared Prosperity Fund.

This was for money to improve the area around Victoria Square and Le Mans Crescent.

A year later, in October 2023, cabinet member for planning, housing and highways Cllr Hamid Khurram confirmed that the authority had been handed around £600,000 worth of funding.

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He said that an “action group” made up of Greater Manchester Police, CCTV operators and others had been brought together to commission a survey on street lighting levels.

Now Bolton Council has appointed an officer to review the lighting in the town centre and propose where improvements could be made.

This includes asking the public for their ideas about where investments should be made in lighting around the town centre.

The survey can be found on the active consultations section of Bolton Council’s website and will be open until Friday March 8.