IMPROVED street lighting is coming into operation across Warrington with the replacement of 18,000 of the town’s 27,000 street lighting columns.
The borough council’s “invest to save” programme during the summer has enabled the new energy efficient lanterns to be introduced.
The new ‘white’ lights or LEDs are different to the old orange lights in that they don’t shed and waste light into the sky and allow more colours and objects to be seen clearer at ground level.
Cllr Hans Mundry (pictured), the council’s lead member for highway, transportation and public realm, said: “As the nights start to draw in residents may start to notice the new lights are very different to the old orange type lights, but they are better for the environment and they are saving the council money in reducing its energy bills.”
One of the new street lights
New “white” street lights are coming on
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3 Comments
Made a big improvement at Appleton near where I live but looking at some comments on social media a lot of people seem to think they have made things worse!
Ours aren’t too bad as they are at regular intervals on both sides of the road and when they were first installed I thought they were much brighter and better but they do seem to have dimmed since they were first installed. Maybe the levels have been turned down, no idea.
The bottom of my dads road however is awful now the old one has been replaced. Plunged into complete darkness and you can’t see a thing. All gardens, drives and the roads turnabout are pitch black. Certainly not very good at all for residents security or for those walking through.
Have to say when it was slightly foggy last week I noticed when driving in the dark that the the new lights seem to reflect on the fog and make it worse unlike the old lights that are still on other roads near hear. Also now the dark nights have drawn you can hardly see pedestrians walking along the pavements now especially if they are wearing darker clothing. Surely that is dangerous and I never noticed the problem with the old lights.
They changed all our road light a few months ago and now the whole road is much darker that it was before with just bright areas directly under the lights.
My driveway used to be well illuminated by the old sodium lights, now it’s pitch black and I need a torch just to find the right keys and keyhole.
More importantly I live down a long cul-de-sac in what’s generally regarded as a relatively crime free area but since the “Darkening” my car has been broken into twice in the space of a month and items stolen. In all my life I’ve never had any problems like this and yet within a couple of months of the lighting change all this happens.
Coincidence maybe but I don’t for one moment think this lighting helped! (apart form making it easier for the opportunist thief!)