A COMMUNITY is divided over plans to install lighting in a park.

Oxfordshire County Council wants to install the lights in Croft Road Recreation Ground as part of a £180,000 scheme to improve the cycle path running through the park.

The lights were due to be placed along the path, along Rippington Drive, down Croft Road and along Purcell Road, to help people cycling in the dark, but they would be angled in a way as to allow children to use the play area during autumn and winter evenings.

They were supposed to be installed last month, but residents in Purcell Road objected to the plan, claiming the 16ft lamp-posts would be placed too close to their homes and ruin their views.

Headington and Marston county councillor Roy Darke said officers had gone back to the drawing board to try to find a solution, which included the possibility of installing slightly shorter lamp-posts.

He added: “The lights will definitely be going ahead, but it’s more likely to be in the autumn or winter now.

“What the county doesn’t want to do is start a job and only half do it.”

But Rita Cowan, of Purcell Road, said the lights would also attract too many people to the area after dark.

She said: “It will mean more students making noise at night.

“The lights will be on all night, and I think everyone is concerned if they have their windows open that the noise might disturb them.”

In July last year, almost 700 people signed a petition to get the lights installed in the park.

Croft Road resident Mick Haines, who has been campaigning for the lighting for more than two years, said: “It’s not really fair on the kiddies who want to play in the park after dark or the people who want to cycle along the path at night.

“The park is unusable when the sun goes down. We were promised it would be in place by July so it could be safe for the shorter days. Soon it will be winter and there’s no sign of them. It’s ridiculous.”

A final decision on how to proceed is expected shortly, said a county council spokesman.