Tricorn Residents Association (RA) has expressed its opposition to the installation of lighting on Kingston's Fairfield Recreation Ground.

Speaking to Kingston Nub, Martin Bates, Chair of Tricorn RA, said: Iinterestingly, from the RA, most of the respondents were female and most and nobody wants lights installed.

"This was surprising to me given the fears women have when walking after dark."

He explained that Fairfield has "at least six different owners of legal owners, and they can't do anything unless they all agree, which is one of the reasons why the natural cycle path down the middle, down the central avenue, was going to have lights then didn't because not all the owners agreed to it.

He said: "A big reason why we're opposing the installation of lights on Fairfield is that the cost will be impossible.

"I was talking to Councillor Wehring the other day, who's the councillor for Norbiton Ward and Kingston Town Ward and he said that Kingston Councillors need to focus on putting money into projects we need like the Kingfisher Leisure Centre, which has cost a lot.

He explained that one of the big problems of installing lights on Fairfield from the RA's point of view is "the loss of dark".

"This lovely island of dark in the middle of town is great," he said"

 You know, there's too much light in the sky. It'll upset wildlife on the Fairfield, especially roosting birds.

"And if you have artificial lighting at night, it absolutely ruins life for bats. And we used to have a lot of bats around there."

Bates personally doesn't agree with installing lights on Fairfield because his father who died a few years ago used to go to Fairfield at night and watch the sunset.

Bates said: If we install lights on Fairfield we'd lose the sunsets. We'd lose the night sky, and it would be really sad.

"There is lighting down the central avenue. It's not perfect, but I was looking at it the other night, and it's adequate."

However, Bates believes that there could be some improvement on lighting on the path that runs down the Eastern edge where St Joseph's School has its main entrance "because that is dark". 

He said: "The other thing they could do without incurring significant extra cost is to adjust the road lights on Fairfield South so that some light would cast onto the new perimeter path on that side.

"And before long, we should have the new kingfisher replacement up and running.

"That is supposed to produce more electricity than it needs. It will be a net exporter of electricity from the solar installation on the roof, according to the planners, which means that you wouldn't need to put up a lot more in the way of physical installations on the field itself."

John Williams, who was the Mayor of Kingston in 1858, 1859, and 1864, struggled at the time to have the Fairfield enclosed for the people, which came to fruition in 1865. However, it was not until 1889, after John Williams died in 1872, that the Fairfield was completely laid out and formally opened with a celebratory cricket match.

Thus, residents are passionate about the upkeep of Fairfield.

However, some locals are keen to have lights installed on Fairfield, with one resident creating a petition for the installation.