Streetlight saving plans hit Dorchester on Monday (From Dorset Echo)

Streetlight saving plans hit Dorchester on Monday

11:00am Tuesday 14th June 2011 in News By Lucy Pearce

Molly Rennie

COST-SAVING plans to reduce street lighting throughout Dorset will begin in Dorchester next Monday.

Dorset County Council has decided to switch off the streetlights in most roads and footpaths across the county at midnight in a move to save carbon emissions and around £150,000 a year in energy costs.

However Dorchester town councillors Molly Rennie and Stella Jones have attacked the move claiming that keeping the lights on until midnight is not late enough.

Certain traffic routes, town centres and roads with speed humps or ‘high crime levels’ will remain lit but the other areas will be unlit until 5.30am.

Coun Rennie, who spoke against the proposals in a town council meeting in January alongside Coun Jones, said streetlights play an important role in helping people to feel confident when walking home at night.

She said: “We have a relatively good nightlife economy in Dorchester and with 24-hour pubs, people want to go home later than midnight.

“I want people to feel safe when they walk home after midnight.

“Things can happen to people walking home, lights or no lights, but people need to feel safe and confident walking home and lights give people that.”

She added: “I understand the county council needs to save money and this is just one of the many measures that the council feels is necessary but I am disappointed about the lack of consultation. I’m not happy about it.”

Scottish and Southern Energy Contracting (SSEC), the county council’s street lighting partner, will begin converting 1,300 lights to switch off overnight between midnight and 5.30am.

The lights will only switch back on again in the morning if it is still dark.

It is expected to take two weeks to make the changes that involve adding a special light sensor to the lamps in nearly all of Dorchester’s residential roads.

Roads in Dorchester that have yet to have their lights replaced as part of the county council’s ongoing county-wide replacement programme with SSEC will be converted to part-night lighting when they are replaced.

The county council has agreed to pursue a programme of part-night street lighting in residential areas across Dorset as part of its plans to save £55million over three years.

Part-night lighting has previously been trialled in rural areas including Charmouth and the Piddle Valley.

These changes will be extended to all towns and villages across the county council area over the next two years.