New street lighting is being brought in to help tackle cornerns about crime and drug dealing happening under cover of darkness.

The works worth nearly £40,000 will cover streets in the Halliwell area where people had been feeling unsafe because of the lack of light.

But the area’s representatives say they hope brightening the streets will deter crime and help people feel safer.

Cllr Safwaan Patel, of Halliwell, said: “What we’ve done is we’ve release what we’ve been spending on over the last 12 months so people can actually see what their council tax is being spent on.”

He added: “Of course we’ve had 14 years of austerity, it’s been death by 1000 cuts.

The funding comes from Bolton Council's Area Working Budget for Halliwell (Image: Newsquest)

“So for us it really was about doing something that’s going to be permanent and which benefits the whole community because walking around some of those areas it really has been pitch black.”

The new street lighting is set to be brought in around Back Crumpsall Street, Back Lena Street, Back Draycott Street and Back Drayton Street.

This will cost £39,144.20 paid for out of a one-off allocation of £50,000 made by Bolton Council as part of Halliwell’s Area Working Budget from May last year to March this year.

According to council documents, the remaining £10,855.80 of this allocation was spent on repairs to the carriageway on Back Halliwell Road.

Cllr Patel says he and his colleagues Cllr Rabiya Jiva and former Cllr Kevin Morris decided to use the money for new street lighting after hearing concerns from Halliwell residents.

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He said: “There’s the area behind  (now closed) Lloyds Bank where there have been quite a few concerns about crime and we had an incident where someone was attacked down there.”

He added: “We’ve also had areas where there have been concerns about drug dealers where because its dark they can’t be seen.”

Cllr Patel said that he hoped that improving the lighting and setting out how public money was being spent would help reassure people that action was being taken.

He said: “It’s about being open and honest with people, which was one of our commitments, we’re going to show people what we’re doing.”