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New street lighting

(25 Posts)
fivegee Mon 01-Jan-18 13:12:05

We've recently had our street lighting replaced with white downlighter-type lamps and are definitely not impressed! The street is now much darker than it was, and there are whole areas of darkness between the lamp posts that were not there before with the old-style lighting. It's's apparently more eco-friendly and more cost-effective, but at the cost of safety? Apart from being a muggers' paradise there's a danger to pedestrians of tripping over now-unseen obstacles in their path. What does anyone else think?

NannyTee Mon 01-Jan-18 13:19:08

Yes fivegee. A lot of streets where we live have had these white lights put in. Our street still has the yellow. The workmen said the yellow give too much shine back to the car lights. Weird me thinks.

MissAdventure Mon 01-Jan-18 13:28:44

The street lights here go off at midnight. The world is plunged into darkness. It's horrible.

tanith Mon 01-Jan-18 13:35:27

We had the same thing a year ago and I thought it would cause problems but in fact it's fine as most of the light is concentrated on the road and pavements leaving driveways and houses darker. Our bedroom is no longer lit up by the lamppost opposite. We had movement sensor security lights put in as have some of the neighbours.
I guess if it helps to keep the council tax bill from rising too much as the power bills will be lower it's something we have to learn to live with.

Granny23 Mon 01-Jan-18 13:37:39

Our street lights were changed a few months ago and I really miss the gentle, free nightlight which lit the bedroom, hall and bathroom. Now when DH gets up in the night (usually several times) he always wakes me too, as he fumbles with the bedside lamp or switches the big light on full blast. I've resorted to leaving the light in the hall on all night, but of course DH switches it off the first time he is up. Grrr

eazybee Mon 01-Jan-18 13:40:09

We were all thrilled when the old-style street lighting was replaced by white downlighters. We live in a rural area, and the amount of lamp posts and neon light for the population was ridiculous. We can see perfectly well to walk, and enjoy the night skies, stars and moon at the same time.
Take a torch if you are worried.!

tanith Mon 01-Jan-18 14:12:57

Granny23 we have the same problem as OH gets up once or twice but we bought a movement light and plug it in the landing power socket so it comes on as soon as it detects movement but goes off again after 30 seconds. It works really well. You can also use it as a torch should you need it as in a power cut as it has an integral battery. I think it only cost a tenner .

Ilovecheese Mon 01-Jan-18 14:15:35

Our lights have been changed to the white ones and I like them much better. The yellow light made everything look so sad and grimy somehow. No problems with seeing where we are going.

Luckygirl Mon 01-Jan-18 14:49:21

Street lights? - what are they!? I have a very good wind-up torch!

Teetime Mon 01-Jan-18 15:21:01

Our street lights were changed to LED and are on all night. You could operate in the street.....burglars find it inconvenient!

BlueBelle Mon 01-Jan-18 15:21:48

I love the fact you can see stars in many roads now and crime rates have stayed much the same

Nelliemoser Mon 01-Jan-18 15:23:28

They save a huge amount of electricity and light pollution which affects birds.
We have had them for over a year now. The savings on street lighting is 40% in the borough and a 35% reduction in carbon emissions . I like it.

Peep Mon 01-Jan-18 18:19:49

Same as Luckygirl, no street lights here. Torch light only!

BBbevan Mon 01-Jan-18 18:44:02

We live in the country. It is pitch black anyway, so we all carry torches at night.

Bluebell123 Mon 01-Jan-18 18:49:28

Hooray. Very much in favour because the new lights reduce the carbon footprint

Greyduster Mon 01-Jan-18 18:52:38

We have these new LED lights. I have not noticed any dark spots; the road is adequately lit. They are on all night and we have one bang opposite our bathroom window, which is quite convenient if you get up in the middle of the night!

NfkDumpling Mon 01-Jan-18 20:51:56

I hate street lights of any kind apart from the overkill in city centres and even some of them are too threatening for me. They mean too many shadows and dark corners. I feel conspicuous and as if someone is watching from the shadows. I always carry a torch to flash into all the driveways, and bushes as I walk past.

As I have said on other threads, our cars were broken into in our drive way because, as the nice policeman said, we'd left the light on for the burglars. He meant the street light outside. I don't feel at all safe with street lights.

Bathsheba Mon 01-Jan-18 21:36:52

We have the new white downlighter type street lamps and I think they're a huge improvement. Apart from the massive energy saving (and let's face it, we all pay for that through our local taxes), I can now look up and actually see the night sky instead of a horrible, yellow, sodium glare. While the new lights may give the impression at first glance that they provide little light with dark patches between the lamps, this is actually deceptive, as in reality the streets are more than adequately lit. The streets, not the sky!

Tegan2 Mon 01-Jan-18 21:40:43

They've changed our street lamp to something that throws out a white light and it seems incredibly bright to me; I've been meaning to ask my neighbour [the lamp is directly in front of her house] if it lights up her bedroom at night.

SpringyChicken Mon 01-Jan-18 22:02:10

We are pleased to have the new lights too. Our road was unnecessarily bright before, just right now.

harrigran Mon 01-Jan-18 23:53:00

We have these lights and find that there are areas that are not adequately lit, we have had to resort to leaving the porch light and a front room light on all night so that visitors can find us.

carol58 Tue 02-Jan-18 00:37:45

Much prefer the new white lights. The old orange ones shone into my bedroom but these point downwards only so I don't have that problem any longer and I can see the stars! They're also better for seeing colours at night so any dodgy looking vehicles driving around in the early hours are easier to identify.

WilmaKnickersfit Tue 02-Jan-18 02:38:55

I like the new lights, but they're turned out overnight here too. But where my Mum lives some older people aren't happy. Her friend lives in a close and before, the whole close was lit up including the front of the houses. Now the new lights just shine down on to the road and pavement.

I think the old lights meant they didn't bother with any lights on the houses. My Mum's friend parks her car in front of the garage which is set back at the side of the house and there's a field on the other side. I can imagine she'll miss walking from her car to the house in the light from the lamp post.

Turning the lights out overnight bothers me much more than the new style.

BlueBelle Tue 02-Jan-18 05:11:45

We ve had the lights turned out here for quite a few years and there has been no increase in crime Wilma which it what everyone was scared of I think light wastage is immense if you ever see a nighttime picture of towns or cities you can see it’s like a Christmas tree all night long offices and shops waste so much

WilmaKnickersfit Tue 02-Jan-18 06:18:25

Same here. I live in the last street of our town and it's country lanes at the top of the road. It's very dark when you're walking a dog. We don't have one right now so it doesn't matter, but we used to use a torch walking the dog. He was hopeless at working out where I was! grin