Marston residents are hoping to win their five-year battle for lights at a recreation ground this week.

Oxfordshire County Council is set to agree to put lights in the Croft Road recreation ground as part of £185,000 upgrades to the area’s cycle path.

Residents have been campaigning on the issue since 2007 to allow children to use the play area during the autumn and winter months.

Marston resident Mick Haines has been at the centre of the campaign, even taking a petition signed by 1,205 people to 10 Downing Street in 2010.

The Croft Road resident will speak at Thursday’s meeting, where a final decision will be made, to convince the council to go ahead with the lights.

He said: “I am hoping they put those lights in. They could have gone in a long time ago, it has been too many years.

“It is about safety for the youngsters and the old people who want to use it in the evenings.

“At the moment it is pitch dark and unusable.”

Councillor Rodney Rose, county council cabinet member for transport, will make a decision which will also cover improvements to the cycle path from Fairfax Avenue to Edgeway Road.

County councillor Roy Darke, who represents the area, said: “I am hoping this will now go ahead and we will see something done over the summer.

“It has been horrendously delayed.”

A proposal for £180,000 of lights was thrown out in 2005 after some residents complained they would be too close to their homes.

The scheme would have seen lights put along the path by Rippington Drive, down Croft Road and along Purcell Road, although it sparked a legal wrangle over the ownership of a stretch of land behind Purcell Road.

According to the meeting’s report, which recommends going ahead with the scheme, “lighting columns” could be installed through the recreation ground as well as widening and resurfacing the path.

All sections of the route would also be converted to bridleways to allow cycling and horse riding.