Petition details
Install Lights at Victoria Park Tennis Courts
Ever since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic and the imposition of the related restrictions, more and more Tower Hamlets residents have engaged in outdoor activities, a behavior which crucially helped and still helps protecting public health, as well as the physical and mental well-being of players. Tennis has proved to be one with the strongest increase in popularity among all genders and age groups, and this wonderful fact has however made the availability of slots to play at Tower Hamlets' courts deeply insufficient to meet the demand by the surged number players. This issue is especially felt in winter, when the shorter days and fewer hours of light reduce an already insufficient offer even more. We therefore petition the Council to install lights at the 4 tennis courts in Victoria Park, so that players can continue to protect their well-being and the health of the whole Council. A small step such as the petitioned one could be a great help in this fight, especially during a season when it's already easy to spend the entirety of our time indoors, with the widely discussed consequences on public health at a time when our fight with Covid is still far from being over.
This Petition ran from 25/11/2021 to 18/02/2022 and has now finished.
8 people signed this Petition.
Council response
The council’s Arts, Parks and Events team has reviewed the petition received on 25/11/2021 requesting lighting provision for four tennis courts in Victoria Park. As part of this review, the council has taken into consideration a previous review undertaken against a request in 2016 to create a lit cycling route alongside the canal in the park. A decision was taken at the time not to extend the opening hours of the park nor to create a lit cycling route due to the associated costs and risks to public safety, park biodiversity and park infrastructure.
The risks associated with lighting the tennis courts are similar to those identified in 2016 including:
• Victoria Park closes just after dusk. There is no lighting in the park, making it unsafe for tennis court users and the general public to be in the park after dusk in relation to personal safety. This includes the potential risk of crime and the increased risk of injury from trip/slip hazards in an unlit park.
• The tennis courts are booked remotely by users (online) and there would be no staff cover in place from Tower Hamlets Tennis (who manage the tennis courts) or the Park Rangers, to manage access routes to and from the tennis courts through the park after dark. This means that we would not be able to aid or assist a member of the public in difficulty.
• If tennis court users were advised to use a designated gate, persons may try to exit the park via alternative gates, increasing the risk to their personal safety.
• Leaving a park gate unlocked close to the tennis courts would undermine the security of the whole park and could lead to a general increase in anti-social behaviour and create a crime hotspot. This would put the public at greater risk and could also result in park infrastructure being damaged and adverse impact to local residents.
• The police have previously raised concerns about attending incidents within the park when no park staff are on duty as it makes vehicle access more problematic. This would apply to other emergency services. Without staff on duty it would make it more difficult for emergency services to locate persons requiring assistance.
• London Ambulance Service have previously raised concerns regarding entering the park when no park staff are on duty and would not enter without the police in attendance.
There are also biodiversity considerations regarding the impact of regularly lighting areas of Victoria Park after dark.
• Artificial lighting can have an adverse impact on nocturnal wildlife, including bats. As Victoria Park is currently the largest dark space in the borough, moderately light-averse species could be present.
• We know there are bats in Victoria Park, and its range of
habitats with large trees, open grassland and the canals along two
edges make it
potentially one of the most important bat sites in the borough.
• Lighting also affects other nocturnal wildlife, such as moths.
In addition to the public safety and biodiversity considerations, the installation costs for court lighting and a designated lit walking route, together with the costs associated with additional park ranger patrols that would be required to monitor the park, mean that this proposal would not be financially viable.
Judith St. John (she/her)
Director, Commissioning and Culture
Children and Culture
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Mulberry Place
5 Clove Crescent
London E14 2BG
Tel: 0207 364 5630