Friday, October 20, 2017

BRIGG STREET LIGHTS IN NEED OF ATTENTION


North Lincolnshire Council relies on the general public, to a large degree, to inform it about street lighting faults. So here goes...
Today (Friday, October 20) has seen periods of sunny autumn weather but also some street lights on - in broad daylight!
We took these pictures on Springfield Road (below) and St Helen's Road (above) this morning.
The latter location is ironic as  Brigg Blog commented several times in the past about another street light halfway down St Helen's Road being "out" for many months.
Could someone from the council be sent out to take a look?
Street lights are a burning topic at the moment, with plans to replace many across North Lincolnshire with LED bulbs which use less electricity.
We've already reported that Craig Austin is unhappy with the LED switch.
Since the original post about that, he's been back to us with a follow-up.
Craig says: "After lamenting the forthcoming demise of the old orange sodium street lights in Brigg, I finally received a reply from the council street lighting dept, basically confirming that the proposed  installation of brutally bright (Craig's description) LED street lights around the area was a done deal, as suspected."
Craig has told the council there are companies producing tinted coloured LEDs and other local authorities using the latest warm lighting (as it is known).
"After a quick Google search, I found several companies that manufacture both orange and warm LED lighting for councils including Westminster & Cardiff," he says.
Craig suggests there will be be "a public outcry once everyone starts to see how badly this will effect the ambiance and character of Brigg and surrounding villages."
He has supplied this link "to a similar campaign happening in Reading."
And also a link to a Daily Mail article he considers relevant.
Craig has also made public the reply he received from North Lincolnshire Council about its LED upgrade project.
The council told him: "The benefits of the white light delivered by the LEDs enable the actual levels of light to be reduced over the levels of light emitted by historic high/low pressure sodium lamps. This level of light omitted by the LEDs is still perceived by the human eye to be greater than that omitted by sodium lamps due to the improved colour rendering of the LEDs making hazards more easily recognisable for road users.
"Unfortunately due to the advancement of LED technology, the costs of maintaining a large inventory of orange sodium lamps increases as the factories scale down production of these lamps and associated gear. Only recently we have been informed by one manufacture that they will no longer be producing the old orange type lamps from 2020 as the whole of the lighting industry moves towards white LEDs.
"We have already gone through our procurement process and contracts have been awarded for the 5 different types of LED lantern we will be using across the county.
"For these reasons we will not be pursuing a change in colour from our procured white LED lanterns for this project."
Craig heads his email to us Lightmare in Brigg.
You have now read his views and those of the council.
Make your own mind up.



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