Street Lights: Switch Off!

Hampshire County Council (HCC) has made the decision, following an October 2018 public consultation, to save approximately £247,000 by switching off street lights from 0100-0400 through the week. Having checked with HCC I can advise that this excludes: all town centres, main (A, B, C category) roads, roads near railway stations, side roads adjacent to 6 signal junctions, pedestrian crossings, roads that have fatal accident history and roads where police advise that lights must be left on for safety reasons.

My and other Committee members' views on this are as follows: there is a risk that neighbourhoods may experience increased crime eg burglaries following this decision despite HCC claiming that research does not indicate this; we would like to see a breakdown of 'savings' being made in other HCC areas to be assured that this is proportionate to residents' increased risks in such reduced street lighting; since solar panels are widely used, why are these not being used on all HCC - & HBC - buildings far more widely to save on electricity; why not swtich off alternative lights; what about turning down street lighting, a 60% reduction in lighting levels would make more sense thereby avoiding a total blackout for pedestrians. Although many of us complain that we hear very little from Cllr. Lance Quantrill, especially by reply, we urge you to contact him and the Leader of HCC, Cllr. Humby - their emails via search engines, to let your voice be known. Please let us know of any responses you receive - thank you.