WARD councillors Julie Gunnell and Sandy Fraser fail to address a crucial element in the proposed trial of white LED street lighting in South Bank (illuminating street scheme, The Press, November 10).
Coun Gunnell is right to say “there is a distinct difference between traditional orange lighting and modern LED white lighting”. Many people are stockpiling traditional light bulbs domestically, as their energy efficient replacements offer a much more harsh and cold illumination.
To change the ambience of the environment in which we live is significant. Yellow and orange street lighting offers a warmer and familiar aura, with a softer effect and is easier on the eye and therefore indirectly our mood.
This can be seen in Deangate, where the beautiful original street lamps (where are they now?) were replaced by modern ones offering a brighter and more harsh light.
Hence the area outside the Dean Court Hotel now lacks the unique atmosphere of the rest of Deangate around the Minster song school.
If all street lighting in the historic centre of York were replaced as it is to be in South Bank, the savings in energy efficiency would be as a result of the destruction of the overall night-time “feel” of our unique city.
Meanwhile, social psychologists and colour therapists would do well to study the effects of the proposed LED lighting on our perhaps unfortunate residents of South Bank before it is imposed on us all.
Jonathan Charles Bonner, Huntington Road, York.
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