Old town street light © Copyright Oast House (Creative Commons Licence)
Modernisation of Hastings street lights addresses global warming
The latest in a series of public events highlighting the switchover to LED street lights in Hastings will focus on changes in the town’s Castle and Tressell wards. HOT’s Chris Cormack reports.
Events will be held at the Bridge Community Centre in Priory Road on Tuesday, 18 March from 9am to noon and at Morrisons supermarket on Queens Road on Saturday, 22 March, also from 9am to noon. Maps showing the changes in Castle and Tressell wards will be on display, while members of the council’s street lighting team will answer questions from the public and listen to people’s comments and feedback. The changeover will take up to a year to complete. The first introductory public information event took place at Priory Meadow Shopping Centre on the 1 February.
East Sussex County Council is replacing around 5,500 old orange and yellow street lights in Hastings with energy-saving white LED lights. The change is part of the council’s drive to reduce its energy budget for the whole of East Sussex by £885,000 over the next three years and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 2,800 tonnes. The council has already saved around £340,000 a year and reduced its CO2 consumption by 2,000 tonnes from switching to LED lights in Eastbourne and introducing part night lighting in other parts of the county. In Hastings, savings of up to £130,000 for East Sussex County Council are expected.
The changes made so far have been well received by residents and businesses. Local police have seen no increase in incidents reported to them.
Street lighting changes
There are two different lighting schemes in East Sussex – the LED Lighting Scheme and the Part Night Lighting Scheme.
LED Lighting Scheme
In Eastbourne and Hastings most of the lights are being changed to new white LED lighting and some lights will be dimmed along the main roads between midnight and 6.00 am.
Part Night Lighting Scheme
The part night scheme is in operation in most other towns and villages in East Sussex, apart from in Eastbourne and Hastings. The scheme means that between midnight and the early hours the County Council has:
- dimmed some street lights
- turned off alternate street lights in some streets
- turned off all street lights in some streets
More details on the changeover in Hastings, which is expected to continue until Spring 2015, are available online or at Hastings Library in Claremont or call 01273 337162.
Consultations will be held at Bridge Community Centre, 361 Priory Rd, Hastings TN34 3NW on Tuesday, 18 March from 9am to noon and at Morrisons Store, Queens Road, Hastings TN34 1RN on Saturday, 22 March from 9am to noon.
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1 Comment
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Many of the buildings in the old town (and on the west hill) are listed and protected. The old street lights are beautiful and magical. I’m all for addressing global warming, but what a shame to replace them with no regard for their surroundings.
Comment by Janey — Tuesday, Mar 18, 2014 @ 15:09