Sponsored by
New street lights turned on in town
NEW street lights have arrived in a Corby road which was chosen as a pilot area for a £132m scheme.
Tanfields Grove is one of the first streets in the county to get new white lights as part of Northamptonshire County Council’s five-year Private Finance Initiative scheme.
The funding was approved last July and will see around two-thirds of the lighting stock replaced with new white lights.
The announcement followed the uproar over the county council’s plans to switch off around half of Northamptonshire’s street lights in a bid to save £2m.
Mass protests took place in Corby and a street lights group on Facebook attracted more than 1,700 members.
County councillor Bob Scott, who represents the Lloyds ward, said his Labour group had supported the PFI scheme, but he was disappointed with the new lights.
He said: “I have been down there during the day and during the night. We were expecting to see the level of lighting that was there prior to the switch-off.
“It is clearly better than the one on, one off situation but it is not as good as before.
“They have spaced the posts out and increased the size by half again.
“My perception is that it doesn’t give the community what they were expecting.”
Tanfields Grove resident Shelley Davis said: “Our road was really, really dark and you couldn’t see anything in front of you.
“The new lights are white and are much taller, so from a safety point of view it is much better.
“It has got to be better than no lights. It was too dangerous for people walking in the street at night.”
A county council spokesman said: “Tanfields Grove is one of the early streets identified to try out the new lighting as part of the PFI contract which will see every one of Northamptonshire’s 65,000 street lights removed, replaced or upgraded over the next five years.
“The project involves installing new street lights and removing the old ones once they are up and running.
“The new lights will use the latest technology to deliver more effective white light to improve night time vision and colour recognition. As well as saving on energy costs the new lights will also reduce the county’s carbon emissions.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Kettering
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
PatKelly
Monday, February 20, 2012 at 04:59 PMGosh well done ET. and the council,these lights where up pre Xmas. They are very bright but not enough of them. Also when all the trees cime into full leaf they will be well blocked out due to bieng so few of them
Comedian
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 10:43 AMThese lights have been on Danesholme for years!! This is just a council press release dressed up as "news".
darren smith
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 02:09 AMTansfield Grove the first street????? These type of lights have been on in Copenhagen road since the summer. And they are much better than the old orange ones
Beanfield Beast
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 11:48 PMCatch up ET, these lights have been on for weeks. And at this time of year i'm sure they're good. What about when the trees come into leaf though, not so sure they'll be much cop then.
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.