Why aid the focus on citizens turning things off?

Northern_Wanderer

I appreciate that LED street lights maybe don't use a lot of electricity. However, I do get quite !!!!!! when I see street lights on in the daytime. This has been a huge problem around here since the council spent millions on upgrading to LEDs.

Also, love to know the cost to heat schools in winter nowadays. Windows open all day in winter for ventilation re covid and heating on as well. Utter madness for a council that is already practically bankrupt. They have closed so many services here in the last number of years, there's hardly anything left. I think it's a case of every little saving helps.

TheBanker

dunstonh said:

TheBanker said:

sienew said:

maxmycardagain said:

In a word

Safety

both to pedestrians, to traffic and to security 

Or perceived safety. Walking home late at night in almost total darkness can feel scary, especially for women. I'm not sure street lighting has a massive impact on making walking home at night safer but it feels safer and that is important and valuable in itself.

It's not just the risk of being attacked/robbed that we ought to worry about. There's also the risk of people tripping up because they cannot see the pavement in front of them. Whilst robberies would generate more headlines, I suspect trips and slips would generate more injuries. 

Yet you don't see reports of that happening in areas where lighting is off or not present to begin with.  As I said earlier, people go out with torches or lanterns instead.

Sensible people who are used to dark places do - I keep a torch in my winter coat pocket, having lived in an area without streetlighting previously. And I keep one in my car in case of breakdowns as none of the roads into my village have lights. I occasionally see pedestrians on those roads without any light, which is dangerous as the footpath is narrow and incomplete. 

I think the risk would come if this was extended to areas where people aren't used to the streets being dark, and might be particularly problematic at weekends if people are coming home from nights out. There probably is scope to reduce streetlighting in more areas, but the risks of doing so would need to be understood. 

TheGardener

Northern_Wanderer said:

...Also, love to know the cost to heat schools in winter nowadays. Windows open all day in winter for ventilation re covid and heating on as well. Utter madness for a council that is already practically bankrupt. They have closed so many services here in the last number of years, there's hardly anything left. I think it's a case of every little saving helps.

Councils don't pay school heating bills now - they almost are all Academies. It is of course still public funds - but one of the few things you can't blame 'the council' for these days as academies get their funding directly from the government.

Section62

Northern_Wanderer said:

I appreciate that LED street lights maybe don't use a lot of electricity. However, I do get quite !!!!!! when I see street lights on in the daytime. This has been a huge problem around here since the council spent millions on upgrading to LEDs.

Strange, most of the councils I know have the ability for people to report defective lights (including ones on in the daytime) online, and have response times measured in hours.

Does your council have a particular problem?

maisie_cat

When we lived in Surrey the local authority turned off the street lights in residential roads overnight. It was very dark but I don't recall any reports of burglaries etc. Most people have PIR security lights on approaches, our next door neighbour attempted to replicate Wembley stadium so there were no concerns about burglaries there.
Here we have no street lights to turn off and it's totally dark, we also have PIR security lights. If we go out in the dark we always have torches anyway, here and when we were in Surrey

Northern_Wanderer

TheGardener said:

Northern_Wanderer said:

...Also, love to know the cost to heat schools in winter nowadays. Windows open all day in winter for ventilation re covid and heating on as well. Utter madness for a council that is already practically bankrupt. They have closed so many services here in the last number of years, there's hardly anything left. I think it's a case of every little saving helps.

Councils don't pay school heating bills now - they almost are all Academies. It is of course still public funds - but one of the few things you can't blame 'the council' for these days as academies get their funding directly from the government.

Councils in Scotland do pay heating bills, we do not have academies in that sense, obviously that funding comes from the government, but still, we are all paying for that wastage.

Northern_Wanderer

Section62 said:

Northern_Wanderer said:

I appreciate that LED street lights maybe don't use a lot of electricity. However, I do get quite !!!!!! when I see street lights on in the daytime. This has been a huge problem around here since the council spent millions on upgrading to LEDs.

Strange, most of the councils I know have the ability for people to report defective lights (including ones on in the daytime) online, and have response times measured in hours.

Does your council have a particular problem?

I've reported faulty street lights, took over two months to fix and several emails. Seems like the sensors for the fancy new LED lights were defective. I think they do have a problem, lots of them!

BUFF

Section62 said:

Northern_Wanderer said:

I appreciate that LED street lights maybe don't use a lot of electricity. However, I do get quite !!!!!! when I see street lights on in the daytime. This has been a huge problem around here since the council spent millions on upgrading to LEDs.

Strange, most of the councils I know have the ability for people to report defective lights (including ones on in the daytime) online, and have response times measured in hours.

Does your council have a particular problem?

Glasgow certainly doesn't have a response time in hours. There is 1 particular light in my street that has been out for nearly a year now despite being regularly reported - tbh I think that it is something more than just a failed LED.