Street Lighting (Middlesbrough)

[veesix]

Just fired off the following to the Environmental Services @ MBro Council...

Hello,

Following on from a recent Government petition put forward ( here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/27603 ) quite a few councils (21 at last count in February) across the country have adopted a Policy involving turning off non-essential street lighting (i.e. residential) across their constituencies.

The resultant benefits of this are:

• Electricity cost-saving

• Maintenance/wear&tear cost-saving on light hardware

• Lengthened bulb life-span (cost-saving)

• Accessibility to the 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty' - the night's sky, for photographers and astronomers alike

The concerns were initially that pedestrian safety may be placed at risk, however this was circumvented by delaying the 'Off time' to activate from Midnight, instead of earlier.

I would appreciate it if this could be considered to tie in with the implementation of other councils but also in consideration of austerity measures and cost-saving objectives. If you could get back to me on this matter, it would be appreciated.

[For information I am based in Nunthorpe, postcode TS7 and can confirm that for the past few nights, the lighting has remained on past 1:30am.]

Kind regards,

veesix

| MSc BSc MBCS FSSoc | <email>

... am I expecting too much?

[petey]

i have already been in touch with the council about 2 street lights i have a particular problem with. they are trying to source a couple of shields for me. they are in the process of updating most of the street lighting but it is going to take time. the more people we can get to write to them hopefully the quicker they will replace them.

pete

[Mansnake]

keep us updated on what they say/do etc...

will be interesting.

[petey]

i dont think they are going to do anything in a hurry but time will tell

pete

[Carbon Brush]

A well written letter.

Much better than my 'you idiots..rant rant' outpourings.

Are you aware of the activities of nottinghamshire County Council?

They are part way through a programme of midnight turn off in various villages.

Experiences from here might help you to push your case?

If anyone knows of a database where all of the 'turn off' authorities are listed, that might be useful ammo for lots of pollution sufferers on SGL.

[euphony]

^ That's a very good idea.

I will shortly be writing a similar letter to the council as the street light at the side of my house is the bane of my life!

[euphony]

Note: My council (Derbyshire County Council) are doing the same thing as Nottingham, however my town isn't scheduled to have anything changed

[veesix]

i have already been in touch with the council about 2 street lights i have a particular problem with. they are trying to source a couple of shields for me. they are in the process of updating most of the street lighting but it is going to take time. the more people we can get to write to them hopefully the quicker they will replace them.

pete

I believe a Freedom of Information Request detailed that they were drawing up plans to move to LED lighting and also, in city centres, motion-sensitive driven lighting.

I don't quite know what they are updating, but the paper proposed a £1 million cost saving by 'turning off the lights' - apparently £48 per light...

[Carbon Brush]

£48 per light saving?

I can believe that. A couple of years back I did some calculations on electricity consumption and coal burn to keep a street light running. It was something approaching 400Kg of coal per light per year. With the corresponding 800Kg+ CO2 production. This was electricity alone. No lamp replacement. No fixture wear out, etc.If Ii can find the stuff, I will post a link.

[veesix]

The details of the one that I saw was a *.pdf document copy of the minutes and proposals from a Council meeting...