Safety fears over NYCC plans for midnight lights-out
Street lighting in residential streets and some key traffic routes across the Selby district are set for midnight black-outs when a new Council policy is implemented.
Selby
North Yorkshire County Council has begun delivering leaflets warning that approximately 60% of the county's 50,000 street lights will be shut off between midnight and 5:00 am. The black-outs are set to be enforced as part of new plans the cash-strapped authority say will save an estimated £400,000 every year.
Locations with busy night-time activity, such as Selby Town Centre, are not going to be affected by the plans. Also immune to the County Hall cost-cutting will be areas areas covered by CCTV, sheltered housing developments and some main road junctions.
But whilst some lights will receive protection, many residents in the Selby area – including in the many rural parts where the streets are already much darker – could be living in darker nights in as little as four weeks time, following the end of the council's 'consultation' on the matter.
County Councillor John McCartney (Ind • NYCC Osgoldcross) told The Selebian, "The villages of Beal, Kellingley, Cridling Stubbs, Whitley, Womersley and Kirk and Little Smeaton saw a 28% increase in crime during 2014 so it is not really a surprise that people are concerned about a possible increase in burglary. After all the only people who like to work in the dark are burglars.
"I am encouraging all residents throughout the District who want to see the street lights close to their property kept on, to get involved in the consultation and to demand that, for perfectly good anti-crime reasons, these lights should remain illuminated to deter would be burglars."
News of the official start of NYCC's consultation comes just weeks after council contractors jumped the gun by switching of lights in 14 local villages before a single property had been consulted.
At that time, a spokesperson for NYCC said, "North Yorkshire County Council takes very seriously the consultation process for its street light energy reduction programme. Unfortunately, the county council's contractors, Ringway, began to turn off street lights earmarked in the Selby district consultation programme before the consultation was complete.
"Ringway has now turned all the affected lights back on and is bearing the cost of doing so. There has been no cost to the county council for the error. The authority will consider all submissions to the consultation before making any final decision about which lights will be turned off between the hours of midnight and 5am."
Election impartiality:
Councillor McCartney's comments have been included in this article in the context of a member of North Yorkshire County Council commenting on a matter of NYCC policy. The last election for members of NYCC took place in 2013 and there no elections currently planned for the council until 2017.
Cllr McCartney is also a member of both Selby District Council and Kellington Parish Council. SDC has posted notices of election relating to membership of both organisations. Coverage of the activities of both bodies and any candidates for election to either body are now subject to election reporting rules.