Get ready for ‘part-night’ lighting

Posted on by staff

Part-night lighting is about to be introduced in Enderby as the County Council rolls out its programme designed to shave thousands of pounds off its annual power charges.

After carrying out a risk assessments the County Council will be part-night lighting streets in Enderby’s residential areas.

The street lights will turn off at midnight until 5.30am (+/- 15 minutes) GMT.  During British Summer Time (BST) the street lights will turn off at 1am (+/- 15mins) and turn back on at 06.30 (+/- 15mins) if it is still dark.

The programme is being monitored in conjunction with the emergency services and Enderby Parish Council.

This is to ensure that the introduction of part night lighting does not have any unanticipated adverse impacts.  This process will identify if any further changes need to be made to the lighting.

Overnight parking on the road

Where street lights are turned off, residents will need to consider carefully how they park on the road at night to ensure other road users can see their vehicles.  For more information on the legal requirements for parking on the road at night see the County Council’s web page.

The Assistant Engineer, Highway Design, Leicestershire County Council has advised Enderby Parish Council that the part-night lighting works currently being undertaken are anticipated to be completed by the middle of next month (May 2012).

Why the change?

From April 2010, the County Council is starting a four year programme to reduce street lighting.  This will:
  • Save carbon
  • Save money
  • Make the stars more visible
The County Council currently owns and maintains 66,000 street lights and 12,000 illuminated signs.  They have an ambitious programme to reduce their carbon emissions by 30% by 2014 plus they also need to save £66 million over the next 4 years.
One of the ways they will be able to achieve these targets is to reduce the level of street lighting providde across the County.
In addition they are now using low energy bulbs when installing a new street light or undertaking lantern replacements on existing street lights. These provide a similar level of illumination while reducing energy consumption by about 30%.  The County Council are also removing illumination from signs and some bollards, whilst still ensuring compliance with government regulations.
The County Council estimate that these plans will reduce their current carbon dioxide emissions by up to 3000 tonnes per year – that’s 23% of our total street lighting emissions (equivalent to the carbon used by 5,500 average Leicestershire homes – a community about the size of Ashby de la Zouch!).  The project is also about saving Council tax-payers money too, and the Council calculate it will save up to £700,000 a year.

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