Part night street lighting

Posted on June 09 2012

Derbyshire County Council is changing the way they light Derbyshire’s streets at night by proposing to switch off some lights between midnight and 5.30am and turning off some others altogether. We look here at the plans for Morton and how to comment.

This map shows which lights will be turned off. Please look at this map first as it shows exactly how your street will be effected. The main road through Morton (Stretton Road, Main Road, Station Road) will be largely uneffected with all lights remaining on all night, with the exception that 3 of the first 4 lights when entering the village from the Stretton end are planned to be switched off between midnight and 5.30am. All other roads in Morton are planned to have over half their street lights switched off between midnight and 5.30am.

If you wish to comment on the proposals, the closing date for comments is the 15th July 2012. Your comments should be submitted to Street Lights, Derbyshire County Council, County Hall, Matlock, DE4 3AG. Before submitting your comments, you may find the list of questions and answers below helpful.

The following list of questions is from the Derbyshire County Council website:

What is part night street lighting?

Part night lighting is where some street lights are turned off between midnight and 5.30am.

This will mean:
• Save 2,000 tonnes of carbon every year – that’s 10 per cent of the total carbon produced by the county council’s street lights and the equivalent of taking 625 cars off the road.
• Save more than £400,000 a year on energy bills. Last year Derbyshire County Council spent around £5.5 million on lighting and maintaining street lights with £2.7 million being spent on electricity.
• Avoid further charges of up to £220,000 per year to pay for carbon emissions produced by street lights under the Government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme. Together with an increase in energy prices, this charge is likely to rise in the future.

Lights would not be turned off in:
• some main traffic routes
• in town centres
• locations with a significant night-time traffic accident record between midnight and 5.30am
• areas identified by the Police as having an above average record of crime
• areas provided with CCTV, local authority, or Police surveillance equipment
• areas with sheltered housing and other residences accommodating vulnerable people
• areas with a 24 hour operational emergency services site including hospitals and nursing homes
• formal pedestrian crossings, subways and enclosed footpaths and alleyways where one end links to a road that is lit all night
• where road safety measures are on place in the highway, such as roundabouts, central carriageway islands, chicanes, speed-humps etc.

Derbyshire County Council’s legal duty

There is no statutory requirement on councils in the UK to provide public lighting, the law states that:

• The Highways Act empowers local authorities to light roads but does not place a duty to do so
• The council has a duty of care to road users and has an obligation to light obstructions on the highway
• The council has a statutory duty under the Highways Act to ensure the safety of the highway and this includes any lighting equipment placed on the highway
• The Electricity at Work Regulations impose a duty on owners and operators of electrical equipment to ensure its safety.

Please remember that not all street lighting will be switched off at midnight; some lighting will remain lit all night in most streets where lighting exists now.

Anyone using roads when the lights are switched off needs to make their own assessment of the possible risks, taking their own appropriate actions to reduce those risks down to a level acceptable to them.

Risk assessment process

One of the intentions of the part night lighting is to develop a safe and sustainable method to mitigate against the long term risks of energy price increases and financial penalties from carbon consumption. In order to meet this goal, the number of lights that can safely be part nighted needs to be maximised.

All roads will have had a review carried out by our road safety team and the police before any lights are switched off.

Any concerns raised from the review will be considered and a decision will be made as to whether the lights will be included in the changes.

Street lights at major roundabouts and junctions, at pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, speed bumps or chicanes which are needed to ensure road safety will not be selected for switching off.

It’s also important to remember that only a small number of lights (one per cent of the total number of lights in the county) will be switched off permanently.

The vast majority of lights will only be switched off from about midnight when most drivers are not on the road, and will be switched on again around 5.30am well before the morning rush starts.

In addition, if a street light is turned off on the highway, it will still need to be regularly inspected to ensure:

• structural safety
• electrical safety if the service cable is retained in the lighting column.

The evidence from other areas of the country in which these measures have been introduced, indictates that levels of crime and numbers of traffic accidents do not increase.

The safety and wellbeing of residents and motorists is important and has always been the biggest consideration of this project. Derbyshire County Council will continue to work closely with Derbyshire Police, Fire and Rescue Service, and East Midlands Ambulance Service on the detailed proposals.

Consultation will also be carried out with parish and town councils on part night lighting proposals. You can see the 2012/2013 schedule on the timetable web page.

Street lights in areas with evidence of high accident levels at night, needed for road safety reasons, in residential areas with higher crime rates, in town centers, and near sheltered housing will be excluded from the measures.

All accidents and crime in the affected areas will be closely monitored throughout the project and regular meetings will be held with the emergency services.

Why not dim the lights instead of turning them off for part of the night?

Not all lights can be dimmed and the equipment used to dim lights is expensive. Derbyshire County Council can only get a sufficient saving and return on our investment from the most powerful lights.

Derbyshire County Council will not be dimming less powerful lights because the dimmer units might need replacing before they have paid for themselves in terms of reduced electricity costs.

How will part night lighting affect on road parking?

The residential areas where cars are likely to be parked on the road overnight, are only being switched off between midnight and 5:30am when traffic flows are likely to be very low.

Vehicle speeds are also likely to be low as these areas have 30 mph speed limits and speed is also constrained by the narrowness of the road, speed humps and the presence of parked cars.

Therefore the risks of collision are considered to be small given the very low traffic volumes and low speeds of vehicles.

However, if you are parking your vehicle overnight on the road, you do have a responsibility to park in a manner to ensure other road users can see your vehicle.

The Highway Code sets out the rules for parking on a road at night and you can find this on the DirectGov website.

Please note that a recognised parking place is defined by the Highway Code as “bays marked out with white lines on the road as parking places”.

Generally in most residential areas there will be no recognised parking places, except possibly disabled bays.

Will the 30mph limit still apply when the lights are switched off?

A 30mph speed limit automatically applies in any road containing a system of street lights placed not more than 200 yards apart, unless signposted with a different speed limit.

There is no current law stating that these lights have to be switched on all night to be applicable. Therefore, motorists are advised that the usual 30mph speed limit will be in place regardless of whether the lights are switched on or not.

Will my home insurance go up if I live in an area where the lights are switched off for part of the night?

Lighting is not provided to protect private properties but to assist highways users.

Derbyshire County Council do not have a statutory duty to provide public lighting and there are many residential areas without lighting.

Monitoring changes and returning to all night street lighting

Derbyshire County Council want to know what you think about the plans for your area and they will consider these along with the risk assessment they have carried out.

However, full-time street lighting on schemes will not be reinstated because of a fear of increased crime or to provide additional lighting to aid recreational or social activities.

Derbyshire County Council will be carrying out on-going monitoring of schemes with community safety and the police to determine the impact the introduction of part night lighting has had on:

• crime and anti-social behaviour
• accidents
• insurance claims.

Derbyshire County Council will consider requests to return to all night lighting if through the monitoring scheme they are advised of the following:

• The police or community safety teams consider there is an unacceptable increase in crime or anti-social activity in an area over a six month period after the change and part night lighting is identified as the cause.
• If there is an unacceptable increase in traffic accidents in an area over a six month period after the change and part night lighting is identified as the cause.

Monitoring will continue after the six month period to ensure that any problems are identified and appropriate action is taken.