RENEWED calls have been made to get lighting on Skipton's canal towpath reinstated "as a safety priority".

Craven College student Eleanor Hartley Smith, of Young Greens Skipton, has launched a campaign to shine a light on the issue, and has started a petition to get the path lit up again.

And Skipton and Craven Green Party co-ordinator Claire Nash has again urged Craven District Council and the Canal and River Trust to work together to resolve the situation in which neither, she claims, will take responsibility for getting the 14 lamps – between Brewery Lane and the town centre – back on.

They have not been working for more than three years.

But the new year is the time to get them back, said 17-year-old A-level student Eleanor, of Upper Sackville Street in Skipton, who uses the path in daylight hours, along with fellow students and school pupils. Members of the Young Greens and Skipton Greens 'decorated' the lights in the run-up to Christmas to highlight the situation.

Eleanor said: "More than 1,000 people use the path in the daytime, then almost nobody at night.

"It's very frustrating nothing has been done about this, especially as the situation has gone on for so long. We have collected several hundred signatures on a petition in the past few months.

"It would make such a lot of difference to the people of Skipton. This is a health and safety issue. We should be able to use the canalside at all times, but after dark it's simply too dangerous when you can't see where you are going."

Claire said she and others has been trying to get something done about the towpath for several years. A petition three years ago had been signed by several hundred people but nothing had come of it. The impasse regarding the lights has come after Craven District Council and the Canal and River Trust each denied responsibility for them.

Claire added: "This has been going on for several years and it's time something was sorted out. The path is well used during the day and it would make such a difference to people's lives if it could be used at night as well. It's not very pleasant for people, especially the elderly, to have to walk along Broughton Road. But I am still hopeful something can be sorted out – the sooner the better."

Fourteen lights were installed in 1999 in as part of a general refurbishment of the canalside area. Half of the cash came from Craven Council and half from a variety of bodies, including British Waterways, some of whose functions have since passed to the Canal and River Trust.