I AM delighted to read that North Yorkshire County Council is exploring how energy bills and CO2 emissions might be trimmed by turning off street lighting (The Press, June 2).
City of York Council looked into this in some depth.
As energy champion for the city, I called for a study to explore whether the public could notice the difference when street lighting levels were reduced by ten, 20 or even 40 per cent.
The study showed conclusively that the public could not identify bulbs that were operating under reduced power.
The savings in CO2 emissions were substantial and a 25 per cent reduction on a £700,000 street lighting bill [in 2008] was a significant sum. Unfortunately, all progress in York was blocked by the previous council leader, Steve Galloway.
Yet there is no evidence that implementing these changes has any impact on public safety, as the report prepared for City of York Council made very clear.
Most of the council’s newer street lights are already capable of making use of this technology at very little extra cost. Oslo has reduced its street lighting bills by 50 per cent by varying the power to the bulbs.
Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.
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