I very reluctantly accept Ipswich Labour’s general case for street light dimming, on money terms not as Ipswich Labour seem to be on the tiny effect on global warming (as this will be off peak it will be mostly nuclear rather than peak time fossil fuels). But there really does need to be some local thinking about it.
This is the map of the blackout spots. I really see very little evidence of any local advocacy from the Bridge councillors (except around bits of Maidenhall Approach, including near Jim Powell’s flat). This is what comes when you see your first duty to your political destiny and a lesser, real but diminished, duty to your constituents (and neighbours).
Kevin Algar has more detail on the case here, and in case anyone thinks that there was no room for maneuver, these are the criteria for possible exceptions:
Lights at major junctions/roundabouts.
In town centres with CCTV, high security businesses e.g. banks, areas of high night time pedestrian usage for example near nightclubs and train stations, outside community facilities or leisure centres.
Areas where street lights are needed to reduce road accidents.
Areas where there could be an increase in crime through reduced lighting, e.g. pubs and specific residential areas.
Remote alleys linking residential streets.
Near pedestrian crossings, footbridges, subways
In public car parks.
At bus stops.
At level crossings, speed humps and traffic lights.
Where there is sheltered housing for the elderly.
Halifax cut is totally black as is the path next to the Maidenhall allotmenat although both are frequently used, and where the center of a vandalism and firebug spree two years ago. Luther Road, which can be a rat run at the best of times, is similarly blacked out. As is the bottom of Belstead Road and the very top of Maidenhall Approach – where almost all the traffic from the town into the Maidenhall Estate comes through.
If you’ve ever caught one of the last trains from London and you want to travel in the light, forget walking up Willoughby Road, it’s going to be a ten minute detour across Burrell Road and up Belstead Road.
And tired of those early Saturday and Sunday morning revellers going through Rectory Road and Station Street? Guess what, not only will they be as loud as before
As for Pauline Street, Turin Street and Vaughan Street? Well there is some compromise in the footpath near the off licence on Station Street (near where the new councillor for Rushmere lives), but there is no other way help for this set of rather densely packed houses, where due to the fact that the houses are so closely packed together the light is already travelling badly. This will be exarcebated with Phil Smart’s parking scheme which will push a large amount of cars into these streets. There is not even a light being kept on in the alley that connects these streets to Austin Street, which is slightly menacing during the day, although there are no lights in Austin street anyway.
(The reason I mention councillors’ houses is not because I’m accusing them of acting improperly, they’re acting totally correctly, but to show that local advocacy is important in these matters. The street lights that were mentioned should have been kept on, but having some engaged local councillors who didn’t treat Bridge as simply a safe ward on the other side of town from their house would mean that these concerns would be raised more.)
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