Fears over street light cut-backs

**Maggy J** · 07-09-2010, 07:46

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11209143

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The growing number of councils across the UK that are switching off street lights has prompted criticism from MPs and road safety groups.
Some councils have turned off some lights at selected times, switched others off and turned traffic lights off in a bid to save money.

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The UK's 7.5m street lights cost about £500m each year to power.
Buckinghamshire County Council said it turned off 1,600 of the 28,000 street lights around the county and was saving about £700,000 a year as a result

I can see this being a useful way of cutting costs but only if care is taken over where it is done.What do you think?

Angua · 07-09-2010, 08:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11209143

I can see this being a useful way of cutting costs but only if care is taken over where it is done.What do you think?

Those who stargaze should be pleased. Otherwise if this is just in the wee small hours of the night, very few will even notice.

TheNorm · 07-09-2010, 08:36

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Originally Posted by Maggy J

....What do you think?

I think its a great idea. But I'm not too sure about this Great British Compromise:

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We think the best thing that they can do is invest in new technology where they can talk to all the street lights centrally and dim them down to, say, 50% of their light output during the wee hours of the morning and still save 40-50% of their energy budget. Everybody wins that way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angua

Those who stargaze should be pleased. ...

An added bonus!

DaiNasty · 07-09-2010, 08:42

Why not just switch off every other one? 50% savings at a stroke and still enough light to find your way.

**Kymmy** · 07-09-2010, 09:34

I wish they'd turn off the one outside of our window!!! Shines directly in on the bed.. Gonna have to deal with it myself soon

DaiNasty · 07-09-2010, 10:45

Our local council decided to save money by fitting low-energy lamps to the street lighting.

But since the current units didn't fit the bulbs they achieved this by replacing every street lamp on all the city's main roads.

Erm, savings?

heero_yuy · 07-09-2010, 10:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

I wish they'd turn off the one outside of our window!!! Shines directly in on the bed.. Gonna have to deal with it myself soon

We had 18 months of bliss while the one outside our window was broken. Then some inconsiderate buggers from the council changed the cable to it and now it's on again. Even with a set of blinds and drapes the light still gets in. Certainly not needed after midnight.

**Kymmy** · 07-09-2010, 10:58

All it would take is a simple shade device to make sure that the light doesn't go where it's not needed

MartJ · 07-09-2010, 11:36

My local council has recenting installed a lot of new lights in the borough, all appear to have deflectors pushing the light down onto the road. I think this is the new standard for street lights, but of course will cost money to replace lights every where.

Also suugested that the traffic lights on the traffic islands should be switched off at night, don't know why they were installed in first place as caused more congestion.

If local councils are going to save money, perhaps a 50% cut in councillor allowances should be the first to be implemented.

AbyssUnderground · 07-09-2010, 12:55

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Originally Posted by DaiNasty

Why not just switch off every other one? 50% savings at a stroke and still enough light to find your way.

I was going to suggest the same thing. A lot of streets have very bright lights that cover a larger distance than the older ones for the same power requirements. 50% is a good start.

Maybe they could invest in LED lighting on the bases of the street lamps as markers for night time strollers?

---------- Post added at 12:55 ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

I wish they'd turn off the one outside of our window!!! Shines directly in on the bed.. Gonna have to deal with it myself soon

I believe the council has to take action on remedying this. The same thing happened at one of our old houses and they came round and put a small blanking plate on one side after our neighbour complained to stop it shining directly in. Mind you these were old style round topped lights not the standard shine down ones you see now.

**Stuart** · 07-09-2010, 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

Why not just switch off every other one? 50% savings at a stroke and still enough light to find your way.

Depends how far apart they are.. Fine if they are every 20 metres apart. Not so good if they are 100 metres apart.

---------- Post added at 13:00 ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 ----------

It would require a major investment, but what about motion sensitive lights? The only slight problem I can see is the fact that a cold streetlight can take up to 1 minute to warm up.

Woolly One · 07-09-2010, 13:42

Turning off street lights shouldn't result in any problems at all. -

That is always assuming that every road user will fully obey the Highway Code. and that any pedestrains will be totally safe walking pitch black streets in the wee hours.

**Maggy J** · 07-09-2010, 13:59

The way I look at it is that £700,000 is a few jobs saved across the boroughs.

Woolly One · 07-09-2010, 14:23

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Originally Posted by Maggy J

The way I look at it is that £700,000 is a few jobs saved across the boroughs.

Or - One new Council Chief Exec, plus a couple of spin doctors. The residule would go toward giving 'golden handshakes' to the standing down Chief Exec and spin doctors. The remainder, will of course come out of front line services.

**Maggy J** · 07-09-2010, 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woolly One

Or - One new Council Chief Exec, plus a couple of spin doctors. The residule would go toward giving 'golden handshakes' to the standing down Chief Exec and spin doctors. The remainder, will of course come out of front line services.

Cynic!