Hampshire County Council are consulting on further
savings to street lighting. To summarise proposals:
Part Night LightingTo extend the hours of part night lighting from the current 1am-4am (3 hours) to 12am-5am (5 hours). No changes to which lighting is subject to the part night lighting regime.
Residential Road DimmingTo retain dimming from dusk to 11.30pm at the current levels of dim by 65%, but to increase dimming from 11.30pm to 5.30am to dim by 80%. (Erm, what about 5.30am to dawn?)
Main Road DimmingTo increase dimming from dusk to 11.30pm from current levels of dim by 30% to dim by 45%. To retain current levels of dimming from 11.30pm-5.30am at dim by 50%. To increase dimming from 5.30am to dawn from current levels of dim by 25% to dim by 40%. (Erm, why does morning need to be slightly brighter than evening? Surely in the morning everybody's eyes are adjusted to the dark?).
Whilst not part of the consultation, I believe existing deferred plans to replace around half of the high pressure sodium lighting on main roads with LED have been resurrected, and so over the next year or so we might see a number of replacements in this respect. I've heard suggestion that 1300 replacement lanterns have recently been ordered and that another around 10,000 may be going on order quite soon.
Personally, I think extending the hours of part night lighting would be fine in many areas, and certainly switching back on at 4am rather than 5am seems really pointless. However, I am dubious about increasing the dimming, especially on residential streets where there is compact fluorescent. Particularly in winter, the compact fluorescent lighting can really struggle to the point that the lowest wattage 24W PL-L is unstable and flickers. I think Hampshire County Council are going too far, yet some of the inconstancies of the lighting are not being addressed, such as some streets having twice as many columns as others for no apparent reason, or some having higher power lighting than others for no apparent reason, or some being all night rather than part night for no apparent reason, or even some lighting existing where it doesn't really serve a meaningful purpose.
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In other news, during a short drive round just a few areas of Southampton this evening, I spotted a good dozen more residential streets relit with Axia 3s, so there is definitely some kind of LED rollout happening. Some localised areas tended to have a fair amount and others not at all. I'm wondering if maybe they are doing LED replacements in place of relamping, but I cannot be sure. UPDATE: I spotted a report which, whilst vague, suggested that there is currently an LED replacement scheme in progress that will see 50% of the city's street lighting upgraded to LED.