Balanced reporting?!!

[Roy Batty]

Was anyone listening to radio 4 at around 7:20 am today? If so you would have caught a short item on the fact that some local councils will be, or are considering switching off some of their street lights. Principally to save on their energy costs, but they are also using the line that they are cutting down on their CO² emissions as a benefit.

To give the item the personal touch the journalists concentrated on one "typical" case in Powys, where a partially sighted pensioner was given the sound bite opportunity qouting that "she felt she was a prisoner in her own home" now that one of the two street lights in her road was now switched off (the light just happened to be right outside her door).

Now at this point in the item I'm thinking OK a pretty cheap journalistic trick picking on an extreme case for the human angle. So now we get the response, and low and behold, it's the poor sap from the council with his tail truly between his legs spouting the carbon footprint line and placating the interviewer by saying that cases for concern can be reviewed to allow for some flexibility.

It's not until you start to think beyond the initial response from the pensioner that it doesn't add up. OK, she may be able to just see with a light at her front gate, but what about down the road or further afield.

From the way the pensioner spoke about her fears of venturing out in the dark I dare say she doesn't actually go out when it gets dark anyway, street light's on or not!.

What made me angry is the way journalist use items like this on national radio as fillers to pad out their main content without any effort on giving the subject a little thought. It's cheap, shoddy work that worst of all politicians love to pick up on to play to the gallery with, and worse still joe public will qoute as fact.

OK... rant over

RB

[beamish]

Saw/listened to the same report on "Breakfast", totally agree- very cheap and shoddy journalism

[PhillyDee]

Saw/listened to the same report on "Breakfast", totally agree- very normal and totally expected journalism

Ive fixed your reply.

Even with proof that it cures cancer and makes everyone rich, they would still claim its bad for you. Or claim that everyone is lying.

[Roy Batty]

I didn't realise this was also a tv item as well. You can just see the scene....

"OK dear, don't worry... for the next shot we just want you to walk into the lampost"

RB

[Reggie]

Is the article on the BBC website? Does it allow for commenting? Quite pathetic that the guy who had his car stolen DIDN'T have a car alarm, nothing like taking responsibility for your own safety and security? by the looks of things the partially sighted lady wouldn't be stepping out without a carer anyway, which sort of makes it a moot point. And the point they missed the most, she could quite easily have a small directed light in her garden if she chose to do so, as could the guy with the stolen car.

[narrowbandpaul]

did the guy claim that without street lights his car was nicked?

surely having lights makes the car more visible?

its pathetic that a significant proportion of the population havent got 2 brain cells to rub together. They believe what theyre told and dont question the way things are. Isnt it this questioning that sets us apart from apes/gorillas...

in which case these people are apes (neanderthals at best)

thankfully all those on the forum do ask questions and dont take things on blind faith.

they are looking to improve their understanding of things. Which is noble..and human

My rant over!

Arent the beeb pathetic, this along with the LHC reporting

Paul

[Reggie]

tbh I can see there being areas that do need extensive lighting but only because the police are failing to, errr, police areas effectively, whatever the reason may be.

I guess the nimbys will turn into pimbys (please, in my back yard) over this one

[Roy Batty]

I see Nitrams' just posted the link to the BBC's "nutters tell us what you think" site on the subject.

Skimming through the replies the one that made me laugh the most was the bloke who's car was vandalised the same week as the bulb went out on his streetlight. Well there you have it..what more proof do you need. It takes real intelligence to make a link between two independent events and state cause and effect.

RB

[Reggie]

I lifted the link from the other post in the astro lounge on this subject, http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=5489&edition=1&ttl=20081014111427

feel free to post comments

I can see some real progress coming out of this, we all want the lights off, some people want some lights on, lets hope there's a sensible compromise in the offing and councils actually think long and hard about about their lighting policies.

[ringz]

I can see problems ahead though.

With the street lighting going off there will be a proliferation of badly designed lighting being used [removed word] nilly all over the place.

It's bad enough around where I live, multi kilowatt lights flooding my garden with vast amounts of unwanted (by me) light.

Am I just being a pessimist?

--

Martyn

[beamer3.6m]

I think its important to remember that if it is dark then you cannot see the criminal, but more importantly he cannot see you either.

It therefore makes no difference if the lights are on or not to whether a crime is committed.

I am sure that people in villages in the middle of nowhere always state that the towns are more dangerous etc, why would they be if they are lit up all the time and these people are correct.

[PhillyDee]

There has to be a sensible approach as always, back lanes etc can be ripe for the unwanted elemsnt, same as certain footpaths etc. But on a wide residential road, with back gardens and the like, its certainly not needed.

[themos]

the bloke who's car was vandalised the same week as the bulb went out on his streetlight.

perhaps the vandal did both his car AND the streetlight. I have 3 streetlights I can see from my garden and my car has had glass broken many times.

[Reggie]

Ringz, If you have issues with other peoples lighting complain to your council, its covered under similar rules to noise pollution and the council can apparently ask them to curtail/remove the offending lights.

[Brinders]

I saw the item on the BBC TV Breakfast programme, made me angry too, particularly as we were burgled a few years back in May at around 5.00 am when it was broad daylight (I disturbed the intruder who fled when I got up to find out what the disturbance was downstairs).

Strikes me that light is the criminal's friend, not the dark. Which is what the investigating officer effectively said when he noted that we had a security light. The police officer said that the security light would have probably helped the criminal rather than hinder him if the attempted robbery had taken place in the dark. So, all this talk of dark streets, towns etc being more dangerous and helpful to the criminal is a load of nonsense so far as I'm concerned - turn the damned lights out and let us have the stars back!

[Astro_Baby]

Lets face it people get mugged, burgled etc in borad daylight. I even had someone about 5 years ago try to grab my handbag on a busy street in bright daylight. He didn't get it - I hissed back, grappled the bag back and gave him a kick in a kneecap for good measure.

Absolutely none of the hundreds of passerbys ( this was in Oxford Street, London ) made any attempt to help.

My last house was constantly vandalised by local yobs despite the street outsode having a whole slew of streetlights.

I found the comments on BBC HYS deeply depressing. As ever Councils get flak for doing what they think best for their citizens as a whole. Dont get me started on that one I work for a Council.

Apart from the drainage, police, fire brigade, schools, parks, lesiure facilities, waste disposal, old folks day centres, animal health, environmental health, car parks, park pavilions, tennis courts, paths and street signs, housing, citizens advice, flood management, planning control and libraries whats the council ever done for us ?

[supernova]

We have been Burgled 3 times.

The last was awfull they trashed my home.

[Reggie]

Apart from the drainage, police, fire brigade, schools, parks, lesiure facilities, waste disposal, old folks day centres, animal health, environmental health, car parks, park pavilions, tennis courts, paths and street signs, housing, citizens advice, flood management, planning control and libraries whats the council ever done for us ?

Aquaducts... Oh no that was the romans.

[beamer3.6m]

Do what we do in law:

If someone has a good argument, jump on the back of it.

What I mean is this - asking people tp turn out lights so you can look at the stars is a non-starter. They think your weird.

However, jump on the carbo0n footprint, green issues (even if you think they are bumpf) and people will be quicker to change their ways.

[EA2007]

Just glad that ITV didn't cover this issue otherwise they would have had no-one backing the notion that it was a good idea.

Atleast the BBC does something to give both sides of the story and isn't heavily biased.

[philsail1]

Yes, I heard that on radio (and saw it on Tv last night).

The pensioner saying she "felt like a prisoner in her own home now the street light had been tunred off."

Me and my wife thought - "what would a partially sighted pensioner want to venture out in the night for anyway - street lights or not, it's far safer for pensioners to stay indoors (with their front doors locked) at after dark!

The guy who had his car stolen. We thought that although he didn't know it, the fact that he had not seen the **** who stole his car, and thus had not gone out to challenge them, probably saved his life!

Also, putting the street lights out - say after midnight - will definately stop all these youths and other ne'r do wells from hanging about under lamp posts and on street corners, just waiting for some poor sod to accost!

The best thing is though - that it will allow me to see the stars Heh, heh, heh!

As everyone else says, to get the idea passed, it's no good arguing logically. You've got to go straight for the "environmental" angle - it'll go through in a flash then!!

Regards,

philsail1

[ChrisEdu]

I can't understand why someone doesn't make kerb-stones with inbuilt solar lights. These could mark out the roads and provide some low level illumination to help pedestrians. After all, they have those illuminated cats-eyes in some places and they look really cool!

[EA2007]

I can't understand why someone doesn't make kerb-stones with inbuilt solar lights. These could mark out the roads and provide some low level illumination to help pedestrians. After all, they have those illuminated cats-eyes in some places and they look really cool!

Like in Back to the Future Part II,

I've just shown my geek-ness there haven't I, oh well.

The councils will never accept something like that, they're already stingey enough with not doing things, do you think they will honestly bother to get off their backsides and pull down all the streetlights and replace them with kerbs that light up.........I think not.

Great idea but if you think about it, not very logical as how many little buggers will smash them in, there will be more broken that working.

[ChrisEdu]

If you used the super tough glasses that are availabe, or tough plastic, they'd struggle to break them.

[Tiny]

Our police are always going on about more lights means less crime.

We don't have lights round us and if we go out we take a torch. On odd occasions we have been hailed by someone, normally illegally in a field, as where are they. Normally they end up more confused when we tell them.

The one danger on our unlit lanes is idiots - including known local ones - using them for midnight car rallies and other foot on the floor events who race round expecting their full headlights to get them round blind 30mph corners at 60 and also expecting walkers or cyclists to dive out of their way on the single track lanes.

The local versions of the boy racers regularly don't make turns a go through hedges but simply keep driving when they do. Often they don't from the bunches of flowers one notices every year or so on one mile long stretch of road where they race two abreast. Because of this some locals want lights on that road!