ANYONE driving past the Battery Park over the last week or so cannot fail to have wondered what on earth is going on as scores of ugly posts have suddenly sprung up all around it.

The sheer size and number of them that have been planted into the ground is shocking - it's an absolute mess. It completely ruins the view of what was, until now, one of the nicest beauty spots in our town.

Then we read in the Tele that this is the council installing them - a full 35! - to brighten up the park after dark.

We are told the council secured money from the UK Government 'to enhance the lighting in public parks in a bid to make people feel safer during darker mornings and evenings'.

More fool the UK Government for agreeing to allocate precious money to such a scheme, when there are a million and one other things it could be more usefully spent on in this town.

We are told that these eyesore posts are being planted after 'safe walking spaces' were highlighted as a concern in a safety survey.

How many people completed it?

It seems that because some people ticked a box or made a comment in a well-intentioned questionnaire, the look of one of the nicest places in the area has to be marred at presumably substantial cost to the public purse.

There may well be some areas of the town that need extensive new lighting or CCTV coverage but is Battery Park one of them?

It's hardly a hotbed of after-dark muggings, gangs, stabbings or violent behaviour.

If it is, then our local constabulary are certainly doing a good job at keeping that secret.

This park has been safely used for years at night by runners, walkers and people taking their dogs for a stroll.

Yes there are parts, nearest the Clyde, where it is dark for a few months of the year but much of the park has the plastic pitch floodlights already illuminating it, and the streetlamps on Eldon Street partially light the pathway against the wall.

The number of lamp-posts is being put up is ridiculous and looks like a serious case of overkill.

This is yet another unnecessary waste of public money, at a time when the council moans continually about how skint it is. This money from the government could have been put to much better use.

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