Overnight street light switch off in Wiltshire proposed

[laser_jock99]

More than 20,000 street lights in Wiltshire could be switched off or dimmed between midnight and 05:30 in an attempt to save money.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-19164001

Good news (maybe) for Wiltshire astronomers. Will probably a reversal of the decision like has happened elsewhere though.......

[GlassWalker]

Wouldn't be too optimistic... the Swindon trial wasn't that big and even that didn't manage to stick. I wonder who wanted those lights so much anyway, as the bit near me only lit the main road joining housing estates - no houses or footpaths on it. Do wonder if some car drivers have poor light sensitivity, as I'm sure car lights are getting brighter and being turned on more often for little or no reason nowadays.

[eiglos]

Excellent news if it goes ahead. As I live in Salisbury this will help a lot, despite me not having any observing gear at all - yet! Still looking at my options and would love to see some gear in action.

[paul schofield]

20'000 That must be 10% in total eh. Hope this works and remains for you. Hopefully it will catch on. Or will there be complaints from residents saying how unsafe the streets are with lights dimmed or switched off ?

[SteveNickolls]

Great news for observers in that county if this comes to pass and there is no future knee-jerk reversal of the decision by the councillors.

Cheers,

Steve

[cotterless45]

Yep, Derbyshire has passed the great turn off, about a year ago. I'm surrounded by 9 of the beggars.

Looking forward so much to this,good luck to all who can push their local authorities into eternal darkness,

Nick.

[Carbon Brush]

It has been said before, but no harm in repeating.

When anyone does see a switch off. Write to the highways dept and your councillor. Thank them for the forward lookng decision. Good for the environment (CO2 etc) is always a winner. Good for council tax bill. Good for wildlife. No intrusive light into bedrooms at night, etc, etc. No worries at all about going out. My car headlights work, etc. Oh and by the way, I have discovered these bright points of light in the sky. Perhaps a wide field photo with the letter? With and without the LP would be ideal. A letter of support to counteract the 'We are going to murdered, burgled, etc' panic letters can only help.

I'm just waiting for the Nottinghamshire village schemes to get to somewhere near to me. Already though one lot of wimps (Bingham) have got a petition to get their lights back on.

Don't wish to hijack the thread, but I heard a funny story from one of them. The lady drives 20 miles through open mostly unilt roads, a mix of woodland and open farmalnd, from work late at night. When she reaches Bingham, after midnight, there is no lighting. The street lights are off and most people are in bed. The village is spooky and frightening. No mention of 20 miles of road to get there!

[JamesF]

I suspect that what many people are afraid of, however they "rationalise" it, is not being burlged or murdered in their beds, but change.

James

[Beulah]

It has been said before, but no harm in repeating.

When anyone does see a switch off. Write to the highways dept and your councillor.

I've already done this - have emailed the Local Authority. The idea about the widefield image s a great one, I wish I thought of that.

[JamesF]

For those whose councils are contemplating switching off/dimming lights, I would never suggest forwarding a widefield image of the Milky Way taken at a dark site with the comment "It isn't even possible to see this from here because of the light pollution", oh no.

James

[NGC1966]

Had this in our village........ unfortunately there was a burgalry, someone tried to nick heating oil from a neighbour. Could have been nasty as the tank they tried to break into was LPG!!!!

The lights are now back on......

Good while it lasted though, great views of the milky way.......

[fiftyonedegreesnorth]

North Somerset have been turning of the street lights from midnight to 5am for about 10 months (but with BST it is now 1am and they don't come back on in the morning!). This is great as I'm convinced they recently replaced the nearby streetlights with 400W HPS as I can read a book at night in the garden (good for star atlas, poor for stars!). Bob Mizon of the Campaign for Dark Skys (CfDS) recently gave a talk at one of our Astrosoc meetings and presented evidence that crime in areas where the street lights have been turned off has actually FALLEN. It turns out that burglars need light to creap around your property - and a torch on a dark night really stands out! http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/misconceptions.html?8O#crime

We have become so use to artifical lighting that we feel lost without it. It is proper lighting that is required; of the right quantity and in the right place - the ground.

God said let there be light - and there was; and it was good. Then my neighbour went to B&Q and said I want a light - and they bought a 500W Security floodlight - and it was a disaster!

[JamesF]

I wonder if the BAA/CfDS might be encouraged to take a more active part (assuming it isn't already) in informing councils about the misconceptions regarding turning lights off? It's probably more compelling for your average councillor to have a "recognised organisation" present the facts than a random resident. They're probably also more difficult to ignore as they probably have better access to and understanding of the media.

James

[Carbon Brush]

JamesF asks...

I wonder if the BAA/CfDS might be encouraged to take a more active part (assuming it isn't already) in informing councils....

Here is one of my experiences.

Four years ago some new excessive and poorly designed lighting was installed near my home. There was me, on my own, bashing my head against the wall trying to get the highways dept to come to their senses. They just quoted this that and the other regulation on road lighting - blame it on the government, etc. Blind the ill informed peasant with long words British Standard references. Also the lighting had received positive comments. Blah blah.

So I looked for support or help from CFDS.

The local CFDS rep couldn't even be bothered to reply.

The local (Mansfield & Sutton) Astro soc didn't even acknowledge my letter.

The BAA said thank you for keeping us informed.

Maybe we should give up? Just watch astronomy on the TV and read books?

[Breakintheclouds]

Wiltshire County Council have an online survey asking for opinions about the streetlight switch-off. If you're in Wiltshire then clearly filling this in is a good idea. Tell others!

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/street-lighting-changes-consultation.htm

[Monty]

Well I wrote to the CFDS and got a great reply. They dug up some minutes from a meeting between the local police and the county council stating that the switch off had reduced crime by 28% in Hertfordshire.

"The tables above show that crimes that definitely took place between midnight and 6am have decreased by 13 (28%) across this period, and those which may have occurred between midnight and 6am have decreased, by 61 (29%)."

[jabberwocky]

Has anyone who lives where the lights have been switched off noticed more people putting security lights on their houses? I'd imagine this would be a consequence of street lighting being switched off, you can mitigate street lights but security lights are harder to allow for. Ok so the overall light pollution will reduce but that's no good if everyone around you has lights either permanently on or one that keeps going on and off all night

[Monty]

Has anyone who lives where the lights have been switched off noticed more people putting security lights on their houses? I'd imagine this would be a consequence of street lighting being switched off, you can mitigate street lights but security lights are harder to allow for. Ok so the overall light pollution will reduce but that's no good if everyone around you has lights either permanently on or one that keeps going on and off all night

Just one light been added by a local on their house. It used to be on all night but has recently been changed to a timed sensor. I guess fuel bills are our friends.

[Daniel-K]

Last Thursday was the first clear night since they have changed the street lights in our area I have to say they haven't used white LEDs but have used orange sodium like ones and it has a made a big difference I could see more stars to mag 5 instead of 4 and a Faint band of the milky way and the sky wasn't really that great with a bit of haze in the south but the real test will be winter to compare but it deffntly looks better. I live on the edge of Liverpool so lp is a lot less were I live so my a few mates take advantage of this on clear nights for better observing then further in the city