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PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:12 pm 
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Hi Stelmer. Yes the Air Con still works! I only tend to use it on the hottest days, as even on fairly hot days just having a breeze coming through the vents while driving along is enough of a cooling effect. I know I should test the Air Con regularly, but I never have.

Before getting told off for going off-topic, I will say as a closing point that webuyanycar.com should be hauled before trading standards for their misleading name. I though I would put my car into their website to see how much they would offer me for it, and it wouldn't accept cars over 250,000 miles! So they will buy "any" car, except cars like mine!

I can understand the idea of perhaps a central pot of money administered by the government for wholesale replacement of the oldest / most unreliable lanterns in a council area (sotonsteve mentioned something along these lines a few posts ago), but when genuinely forced to by repeated unreliability and call-outs, our local council will choose to bulk-replace a problem area when the lighting has deteriorated beyond economic repair. So the government could put up a pot of money, or they could leave things as they are and force the council to fund any bulk-replacements out of their own money. Again with the national deficit as it is, it makes sense to cancel the PFIs, not create an extra pot of money, and just let the councils to carry on funding things themselves.

This is what happens in Colchester. At the moment, certain streets will be converted en-masse from SOX to SON, which has the benefit of reintroducing lantern uniformity to an area where it has been eroded over the decades. But from a street lighting enthusiast's point of view, it also means that other lanterns will hold onto their existence way beyond their expected design life and provide an excellent photo opportunity! (for example the road of GEC Z5641s in my avatar).


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:14 am 
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This is the same for York. Normally stuff only gets replaced if it's broken, dangerous, or if a local parish council has requested a street be upgraded (whether SOX or mercury to SON can be considered an "upgrade" is left for the reader to decide!). At the moment there is a bulk replacement program to replace pretty much every mercury lantern in the city with 42w Thorn Jets*... but the last time such a large bulk-replacement was done in the city was when the Thorn Beta 5 showed up over 20 years ago! I think the Beta 5 would have replaced more mercury lanterns (and possibly even some Open lanterns) as they're all Top Entry - the only side entry ones are modern Streamline Beta 5's in a part of New Earswick.
But that is the way things go... no PFI here to bland-ise everything.

* - if the local paper is correct, the city has 3,000 mercury lanterns. A paper came through our door last week saying there were 2,300 remaining. I question this second figure, because I have cycled around Haxby and Wigginton, and that area alone (haxby is actually a town in its own right) must have had at least 500 mercury lanterns... and I don't think for a second that Skelton, Poppleton, Strensall, Stockton on the forest, and Heworth only had 200 mercury lanterns between them.

David wrote:
Before getting told off for going off-topic, I will say as a closing point that webuyanycar.com should be hauled before trading standards for their misleading name. I though I would put my car into their website to see how much they would offer me for it, and it wouldn't accept cars over 250,000 miles! So they will buy "any" car, except cars like mine!

TBH I'd be inclined to submit that to trading standards, complete with evidence saying they won't buy your car! let's face it, that is kind of a fundamental flaw in the whole buying any car ethos thing they've got going on with their name!

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 12:20 am 
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When Calderdale last got an upgrade, everyhing went from Z5590's/ Prefects / Beta4's, etc o blanderised T/E Beta 5's.

I think Hunstanton still has some mercury left.

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:57 pm 
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Has this happened in any other county?

Colchester Evening Gazette wrote:
A PRIVATE firm could be given a contract worth up to £3billion to oversee Essex’s entire road network.

Essex County Council has published a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union calling for bids from one or more companies to “transform the way in which highways and transportation services are delivered”.

The authority is looking to offer a firm or consortium a ten-year contract worth between £500million and £3billion, according to the notice.

The huge range of work the successful bidder would carry out includes safety inspections, resurfacing works, improvements to junctions, new zebra crossings and managing the county’s traffic control centre.

They would also be responsible for highways lighting, supplying and maintaining bus stops, some consultancy work and more.

If it goes ahead, I would imagine the winning bidder or consortium will be the bidder that comes in at the lowest price (assuming all the bids are plausible) and therefore the winner will continue to keep Essex's street lighting costs as low as possible, else run the risk of being out of pocket as a result of bidding so low.

Thankfully, this policy of keeping ancient stock in service for as long as possible and not replacing anything unless you absolutely have to seems to be current Essex County Council policy which I am eternally thankful for, because it means much of the county's fantastic lighting heritage is still in evidence to this day.

I wonder whether this notice inviting tenders to bid for control of the county's street lighting for the next ten years means the Council have conceded that there can't be any money available for that street lighting PFI they wanted?

Also, if there is a consortium bid, I hope Essex's current street lighting contractor is part of it. The knowledge my contact has of what street lighting is where in my corner of Essex is staggering (after years of covering the same patch) and it really puts my knowldege of the local area to shame! Clearly his knowledge brings a benefit to the council and his employers. Furthermore, his van and garage are like an Aladdin's cave of bits of young but damaged lanterns which are in the process of being stored, repaired or rewired so they can be put back into service in a new location. His efforts alone of re-using perfectly serviceable lanterns where possible, instead of ordering news ones, must save the council at least a five-figure sum of money every year!


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PostPosted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 8:42 pm 
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There are some changes to lighting in Suffolk that have happened since my last visit.

Some column painting is still taking place in the county. Just as an example, the road where I was staying has 5m CU aluminium columns with Eleco HW918 lanterns, and the columns have recently been painted Suffolk green. However, the lanterns escaped painting, which is unusual for Suffolk. Perhaps it was because they are mercury lanterns, and the council know they will need to be replaced within the next 5 years.

New columns being installed in Suffolk are now unpainted galvanised Stainton columns. I saw some main road 10m ones fitted with grey WRTL Arcs on medium outreach brackets at Copdock in Ipswich. Meanwhile, I saw some 6m ones fitted with post-top Suffolk green Sapphire 1s (yes, unpainted galvanised columns with green lanterns). Of greater note, I saw some fitted with post-top grey Urbis Evolos on a couple of roads. Meanwhile, the main road from Ransomes Europark going into Ipswich has had its MA50s changed over for new grey Urbis Evolos. On a side street in Ipswich I also spotted an Urbis Nano installed on an existing column. I also spotted a WRTL Pathfinder nearby. And finally, in Rendlesham some Eleco GR151s have been replaced with Suffolk green WRTL Arcs on existing columns.

So, times are changing in Suffolk.


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PostPosted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:11 pm 
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David wrote:
Fingers crossed that this waste of space hits the buffers in tomorrow's emergency budget.

Although I cannot access the actual news report (you need a subscription), the first link on this Google results page seems pretty conclusive and is indeed brilliant news for residents of Essex and Herts.

I am certainly breathing a sigh of relief. Although there would certainly be a novelty factor in seeing brand new street lighting every way I turned, it would be so short-lived and I would soon start missing Essex's fabulous and well-maintained ELECO, GEC, Phosco, REVO and Thorn lantern stock.

Hertfordshire is also a haven for old lanterns (with even its own web site claiming that 60% of its lighting columns are over 40 years old!) so again it's fabulous news for lighting enthusiasts if the PFI in Hertfordshire also hits the buffers.

And this Essex County Council consultation exercise is certainly a novel way of getting people involved in the expected budget squeeze (and possibly a way of spreading the blame should any implemented cutbacks prove to be controversial). Needless to add, I had to put my two-penny worth in! (I'm post No. 7).


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:23 pm 
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With an hour to spare today, I popped into the local history section of Colchester Library to look at the fascinating pictures of Colchester in the 1960s and 1970s contained within its many history books. Imagine my surprise when I found a book about the history of Colchester's street lighting!

Sadly the library shut at 4:30, which only allowed me a brief glance at the book before closing time, but the book extensively documents the different lighting types used in the past to the present day - from oil and gas to electricity and also the various types of electric lamps previously and currently used like GLS, MBF, MCF, SOX and SON. The author also documents the areas and streets in the town centre where SOX was shunned in favour of fluorescent lighting, and when and where fluorescent lighting was installed - something which he may have done from his own memory and an area where my own memory falls well short. The book also talks about the P111s installed in Colchester's Dutch Quarter (where I currently live) in the 1960s, in order to help retain the area's appeal to tourists. Thankfully, this practice still continues today almost half a century later, although the old SOX lanterns from the 1960s are slowly being replaced with the cut-off SON version of the lantern.

Needless to add, I'll be back in the library at the earliest opportunity to finish reading the book. Anyone else lucky enough to have the history of their town's street lighting documented by a local enthusiast/author?


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:27 pm 
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What are lucky find. Sotonsteve and I have been studying old local history books of our areas searching for lighting in old photos. I have yet to come across a dedicated book.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 11:05 pm 
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Oh, drat. That's one less Alpha Six in Colchester  (almost certainly this one on the traffic island, as you leave the roundadout heading for Colchester)


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 06, 2010 11:15 pm 
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I wonder if the bowl is/was still in one piece...? :lol:

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