Part-night lighting proposals “too inflexible”, say Lib Dems (St Albans Liberal Democrats)

St Albans Liberal Democrats <info@stalbanslibdems.org.uk>

Part-night lighting proposals “too inflexible”, say Lib Dems

December 20, 2011 11:03 AM
Originally published by Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats

With the part-night lighting scheme set to be rolled out to more districts from the start of the New Year, Hertfordshire's Liberal Democrats have once again sounded a warning to the plans by the Conservative administration at County Hall, saying the proposed scheme is too inflexible.

Commenting on behalf of the Lib Dem Group, Malcolm Cowan, Lib Dem County Councillor for Handside & Peartree (Welwyn Garden City), said:

"When the final criteria for the scheme was debated by the Scrutiny panel, the only group that is recorded as not having supported the plans are the Liberal Democrats. We abstained on the final criteria because it was too inflexible to local circumstances; we want local councillors to be able to keep some of the lights on in urban areas, for example. Many residents have said that keeping on one light in three would make an enormous difference and greatly reduce their fears about being in darkness.

"Nothing has changed since that meeting - apart from Labour's stance, as they are now claiming they have been against it from the start. The record says otherwise."

"We think the proposals don't take account of local circumstances," explained Lib Dem Group leader Chris White. "There are some areas which have pedestrians until much later than midnight - commuters returning from an evening in London, for example - and there, it would make sense to keep the lights on much later. There is little need, on the other hand, to keep busy roads lit which have no footpath or pedestrians, when the cars using them can easily use their headlamps instead."