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The switch off begins, but you are still safe
Community
POLICE have issued a message of reassurance as county bosses switch off street lights across Dacorum to save cash.
The operation to plunge parts of the borough into darkness between midnight and 6am started last week.
But the county’s Chief Constable Andy Bliss said: “We recognise Herts County Council’s need to make cost savings
“It is perfectly understandable that its street light programme will cause people to question their safety and security, but we have seen no evidence that reduced street lighting results in crime increases.
“Police officers will be working 366 days and nights this year and, as part of my programme to get more officers out on foot and bike patrol, they will be actively patrolling both lit and unlit areas across the county, with their standard equipment, which includes a torch, every night in order to keep crime levels as low as possible.”
However, a spokesman for local milk deliverers Dairy Crest says some milkmen are concerned about the big switch off.
Arthur Reeves said: “Milkmen want to be safe and on occasions switching street lights off makes them feel less safe.
“In small dark streets they feel uncomfortable in pitch blackness.”
Police say since the start of the council’s programme of switching off lights in other parts of the county there has been ‘no perceptible increase in incidents or any change in crime patterns that might relate to street lights being switched off’.
Police also point out that many rural have never had street lighting and crime is no more prevalent in those areas.
Councillor Stuart Pile, who oversees highways at County Hall, said: “People say: I won’t be able to go out, I might fall over, the street will be dark when I’m driving – all the things people say will happen don’t happen.”
He said they will only be targeting B roads in Dacorum at this stage and will begin on A roads in the autumn. The whole project will be reviewed in mid 2013.
Across the county around 80 per cent of street lights are being converted to part-night lighting but the scheme is continually reviewed and around 80 lights have already been switched back on.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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Comments
There are 8 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
JasonVonhaartman
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 02:36 PMok the points are as i see it: peoples properties are in more danger, as house break-ins are on the up anyway. (see local paper this week) some people work at night or before 6, so are more unsafe (milkmen, paper vans) Some of us would like to see the sky night . normal street lights use a lot of power to turn on, and then a lower power to stay on, so street lights don't save as much as you think, unless you go to LED tech. Last point i like to make is : in denmark they use lights that are far dimmer then the uk and your eyes get used to it, when i come back i was shocked how much light there is here.. dim them instead!!!
livewell
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 03:49 PMI'm sort of split on this issue, while it is billed as a costcutting measure it is actually not going to start paying for itself for four years because of the costs involved, they have aparently already turned 80 back on, how many more that have been refitted will have to be turned back on at a financial loss to their estimated savings. Then what if after a year they decide to turn them all back on, that will prove to be a whole wasted exercise and financial loss to the tax payer. Birmingham and other councils are fitting LED lights which alledgedly cost 95 percent less to run than normal lighting, why didn't herts decide to go with this option instead of running the risk of this scheme not working?
PrivateDancer
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 03:47 PMPut that light out !!
fallen_satellite
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:08 PMTurn them all off completely; there are enough people round our way with outside lights on constantly, demonstraiting their willingness to provide this service to their neighbours for free... it might actually make them realise that these lights are on and quite how far they shine.
Yellow Rose
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:57 AMI agree with oldschool that Reikisue is talking rubbish. Turn the lights off and let’s see the sky without all that pollution. Down our street the lights are so bright that you do not need to put on the lights to walk up and downstairs. You need blackout curtains so you get the kids to sleep at night. Turn the lights out! Hemel area no neighbourhood watch
oldschool
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 07:43 AMTwaddle. I would welcome the lights being turned off. I don't believe the lights make us safer they just give the thugs and vandals better working conditions. Most crimes take place in well lit areas. I would also like to see some legislation about what floodlights people can have on their properties. Often these are very obtrusive and light up the whole street just because a cat has wandered by.
Reikisue
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:12 PMWe have set up a Facebook Campaign Group for Hertfordshire residents which seeks to either have our street lights turned back on (or a suitable compromise agreed), pending a full and public consultation and discussion on the best way forwards on this issue with the Council, mindful that economies do need to be made and eco-friendly solutions found. There are many options to consider, if indeed Herts County Council ever have the manners to actually consult with us the public i.e. the taxpayers themselves! Whilst we appreciate that some people can now see the stars etc, we have now been in the dark for the last few months and trust me its horrendous (unless you do like the eerie pitch black darkness outside). We are concerned about health and safety, feeling of being forcefully curfewedimprisoned in our homes, and percieved and in deed actual crimes that also have now occured (whether crime is shown to increase or not, its the fact that a crime occured that effected a person that matters thats contributed to the street lighting being off) and the practicalities of those effected by this ridiculous initiative. Please do consider those who do are out at night - your nursesDrs etc,,office workers going to work early, milkmen, care workers, police, ambulance and firebrigade, AA, RAC, and people coming back after a night out. There have been two deaths and one murder that i know about over the UK (two of these were in Borehamwood) where the street lighting being off possibly contributedto these incidents occuring.... The cost saving of £1.3m a year over the whole of herts and carbon emission savings are neglible in the great scheme of things and are eroded by the fact that now a million herts residents need to get torchesbatteries and use carstaxis when they would have previously walked plus many of us now are having to buy our own security lighting! We've already been on BBC local News and in the Daily Mail. So please join our campaign for all Herts residents and sign our online petition - links below - if for any reason these links are not printed in full - please search for Daniel Graham, Street lights and go to his slideshow and in the comments underneath you'll also find these links. The Facebook Campaign Group is entitled 'Turn Our Street Lights Back On': https:www.facebook.com#!groups189605187792781 This is the online Hertfordshire County Council petition to 'Turn our street lights back on': https:consult.hertsdirect.orgpetitionspetition?petition_id=26045 We have a full Council meeting to attend on 21st February to say our piece - please try and sign our petition before then and copy all this on your facebooks and to any work place, clubs, associations etc. We need thousands more signatures. We also have a paper version of this petition if you need it - email me if you want it (contactsuzanne@gmail.com) Kind regards Suzanne Area Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator (Borehamwood)
ColetteColls
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 07:03 PMthey turn the lights off at midnight yet turn them on again at 5am in my street wen its not really needed as people r starting to go to work etc, the times they are turning them off are the best times for car thiefs, we have already caught the local chavs around the cars and was when the lights are on
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