The Association of Residents of the Historic Center of Balaguer has called for tonight the walk "Posem llum a la foscor" (Let's put light in the darkness), a protest starting from Plaça del Mercadal to denounce the lack of public lighting in the old town.
The mobilization stems from a paradox that the residents want to make visible in the street. In the heart of the historic center, several residents say they have to use their mobile phones to see where they are stepping when night falls, despite it being an inhabited area with neighborhood traffic.
Participants will walk through the darkest areas with flashlights, mobile phones, headlamps, and candles, with the intention of collectively illuminating the most affected stretches of the route.
The protest comes after months of complaints and an assembly in March
The action has been organized after months of neighborhood complaints and an assembly held in March, in which the entity agreed to promote concrete measures in the face of the municipal government's lack of response.
Teresa Estany, president of the association, places the lack of light among the most visible problems in the neighborhood and maintains that in some streets the situation forces residents to use their phones for light in order to walk.
"The neighborhood has many problems, but one of the most evident is the lack of lighting in some streets that forces us to use our phones for light to see where we are going" - Teresa Estany, president of the Association of Residents of the Historic Center of Balaguer
The entity links this deficiency to obsolete facilities and insufficient maintenance. In its diagnosis, this combination generates insecurity and adds risks for those who live in the old town.
The route will make three stops to explain neighborhood legends
In addition to the protest, the route will include three stops at problematic points to narrate legends of Balaguer. The association wants to incorporate local memory into an action focused on everyday neighborhood problems.
Estany explains that the walk has been designed precisely through the areas most affected by the lack of lighting and that at these three specific points, stories linked to the neighborhood will be told.
"We have devised this protest action through the most affected areas and at three specific points we will explain legends of Balaguer" - Teresa Estany, president of the Association of Residents of the Historic Center of Balaguer
The departure is scheduled from the Plaza del Mercadal and the call seeks to make darkness the visual axis of the protest. The residents intend to show with their own route which streets are worst lit within the Historic Center.
The association has already warned that this mobilization will be the first of several actions if solutions are not reached in a short period.