According to the BBC Pembrokeshire is about to become the second county to turn some of it’s street lighting off in order to reduce it’s energy bill. Apparently the lights that have a special timer photocell fitted turn on when it starts to go dark and then shut off at Midnight. Then at 5.30 in the morning come on again for the last few hours of darkness. There has been the usual banter about how turning the lights off reduces safety and increases crime but looking into the story the lights being turned off are ones in rural and low risk areas and quite frankly apart from staggering back from the pub and a night workers who really needs street lighting between Midnight and 5.30
There is also a brief mention about how much CO2 is being saved by doing this, which is nice but we all know the real reason is to save a few quid on the electric bill and good on them. If it keeps the council tax down during the current spate of high energy prices then it has got to be worth doing.
Now I just wish Walsall council would implement this with the street lights outside my bedroom window.
You can read the article here > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/7650110.stm