NEWS
The Glasgow (UK) and East London (South Africa) co-operation wins the Thorn LUCI LightLinks project 2009
Richard Hall, Marketing Director of Thorn and Alexandre Colombani, General Manager of LUCI, announced the winners of LightLinks 2009 at an awards ceremony at the LumiVille trade fair in Lyon on 27th May 2009.
The City of Glasgow will be assisting the City of East London in Eastern Cape Province which is represented by the Amathole District Municipality with a project focusing on a historical site and the waterfront Boardwalk.
Bailie Allan Stewart, Deputy Lord Provost of Glasgow, who was present at the event, highlighted that winning the competition will enable the two cities to further develop the strong links established by the Memorandum of Understanding, signed in 2007.
Other co-operations proposing projects for the competition included: Hue (Vietnam) and Blois (France), Adis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Leipzig (Germany), Turin (Italy) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).
The LightLinks 2009 judges consisted of representatives from: Thorn, LUCI, Concepteurs Lumière Sans Frontières (CLSF), and lighting experts from cities that have been involved in decentralised lighting co-operation.
The competition, sponsored by Thorn, promotes economic and social development in disadvantaged communities through sustainable urban lighting. It encourages cities from low and high income countries to create partnerships by offering a prize of up to € 20,000 of equipment. Additional support is being provided by The Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme and independent lighting consultants.
The jury was convinced that by building on the established ADM Tourism Plan, the LightLinks project will make a real difference to those in the East London community, in addition to improving the night-time economy and appearance of the city.
Christophe Richon, Thorn Academy of Light Director, comments: ‘We at Thorn are convinced that the way forward is in reinforced cooperation, not isolation. Indeed LightLinks aims at building bridges between cities across the world, through lighting.’