"We have said that when we govern, the Swedish Transport Administration will need to prioritize road lighting in rural areas," says Anna-Caren Sätherberg, rural policy spokesperson for the party, at a press conference.
The Swedish Transport Administration owns one-third of the lighting along state roads around the country. The rest is owned by the municipalities where the lighting is located.
Has been paused
This spring, the Swedish Transport Administration paused its inventory of the lighting it owns, as well as its decision to dismantle it, after protests from municipalities and residents.
According to Peter Jonsson, press officer at the Swedish Transport Administration in the northern region, the pause will last at least for the rest of the year.
Nothing will be taken down this year, says Peter Jonsson, adding that the work, before the pause, had progressed furthest in Jämtland.
Many people may be affected
Anna-Caren Sätherberg has no clear idea of how many villages or places in the country are affected in total. But she assumes that there are quite a few.
What the Swedish Transport Administration has said at my home in Jämtland is that it could be 100 villages that could be affected, says Sätherberg.
It's a way of looking at the countryside that is not Social Democratic policy - that rural residents should not have light.
The Swedish Transport Administration regularly inventories lighting in the state road network based on where the resources are most useful. This includes how busy the road is, what traffic safety requirements there are at a location, and whether the lighting and installations are old and no longer electrically safe.
- We don't take down functioning lighting, says Peter Jonsson.
Many of the locations that may be subject to a decision to remove lights no longer have the same heavy traffic as when the lights were first installed. The removal pause does not apply to lights that have become a traffic or electrical safety hazard.
