IT HAS taken five years and a trip to Downing Street but county transport chiefs have finally agreed to illuminate a small part of Oxford.

Marston residents have been campaigning since 2007 for lights to be installed at the Croft Road recreation ground.

Community campaigner Mick Haines even took a petition to 10 Downing Street to raise awareness of the issue.

Last night he said: “I am very pleased for everybody. Lots of people will be over the moon about this.

“We were promised the lights in 2009 and it has been a hard fight over the years.

“I think more people will feel they can use the play area now.”

The lights come as part of an Oxfordshire County Council scheme to invest more than £180,000 into the area.

It will also include widening, resurfacing and realigning the path which leads along Fairfax Avenue and Purcell Road which according to the report is “difficult and uninviting to use, even for able-bodied pedestrians”.

The path leads from Marston to the University Science Area along South Parks Road and ultimately to the centre of Oxford.

As part of the work, the county council will also convert the route into a bridleway so it can be legally used by cyclists.

Lighting columns will also be installed on the section of the route which runs through the recreation ground.

A previous proposal for lights was thrown out in 2005 after some residents complained they were too close to their homes.

County councillor Rodney Rose made the decision to go ahead with the scheme at his delegated decisions meeting on Thursday.

He said there would be further discussions to make sure the lights did not disturb nearby residents.

Purcell Road resident Peter Haarer spoke at the meeting.

He said: “We are very concerned about noise late at night which is produced by people coming back from town.

“The council have obviously worked very hard on this and we had no objections to the resurfacing of the path itself.”

dfantato@oxfordmail.co.uk