Criminals have a good chance of escaping justice because a town's "hazy yellow" lighting is not helping police to identify offenders picked out on closed circuit television cameras.

Kendal Police's Crime Prevention Officer Terry Belshaw told members of South Lakeland District Council's Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership that the low-pressure sodium lighting prevalent in the area created difficulties for officers monitoring CCTV pictures.

He said the current illumination did not provide good evidential footage because "a car looks different in daylight than it does in yellow lighting" and it was difficult to pick out individuals when the lighting made their clothes appear a different colour.

"We have a problem in relation to lighting," he said. "What we need to promote is good clarity and good colouring emission. The yellow we have at the moment is not good enough."

Mr Belshaw said the best lighting quality was supplied by Metal Halide and Compact fluorescent, which gives a bright white light. He added when lighting was in position it also needed to shine on the ground rather than into the atmosphere, with lampposts placed to eliminate the "zebra effect" of shadow and then light.

"Good lighting reduces the opportunity of offenders to commit a crime, reduces the fear of crime in an area and maintains a healthy and safe environment," he said. "The best light source is the sun and the nearest we can come to creating a light source that reflects that then the better we will be.

"People behave differently in daylight than they do at night. What we are trying to do is give people daylight behaviour."

Members also discussed making public lighting improvements in the Kirkland area of Kendal following a serious incident of rape last October.

SLDC's Alastair McNeill said the Kirkland Partnership had held meetings following the incident, which had resulted in recommendations that lighting improvements were investigated in four areas - the John Boste Club car park; the Kendal Parish Church car park site; the Church Walk public footpath; and the south side of Abbot Hall Park along the boundary with Blind Beck.

Members heard that the public footpath between Abbot Hall and the parish church was particularly dark and the recommendation was that four Victorian-style light columns were introduced, costing in the region of £6,000. A row of six Victorian-style lights is also proposed between Abbot Hall and Blind Beck, costing about £12,000. Mr McNeill said it was hoped Cumbria County Council would adopt both lighting schemes.

Mr Belshaw said that people visiting Kirkland at night would get a totally different impression of the area than they would if they visited during the day. He said that lighting at all links, short cuts and passages needed addressing because there were "hot spot" areas such as take-aways, restaurants, public houses and bars.

"Lighting is a far reaching issue and will go a long way to negating any problems down there," he said. "My only concern is access to the lights by the criminal. I would not like to see some highly decorative lighting down there that can be knocked out by the vandals."

The partnership agreed to support in principle the change of yellow lighting to white and gave backing to lighting improvements in the Kirkland area. A contribution of £5,000 from the Safer Communities Initiative Fund towards the lighting schemes at Church Walk and Blind Beck was also agreed.

February 7, 2003 11:00