LED lights coming to Church Road

The concrete lighting columns in Church Road are due for replacement. In addition to this their overhead cables and locations do not meet current design standards. This means Council Officers have decided to take the opportunity of redesigning the layout and converting the lights to LED ahead of the rest of Frampton Cotterell which is scheduled for 2018. LED lights are the energy efficient more focused lights, already installed along Badminton Road. Officers have calculated that there will be a 76% reduction in energy use and therefore cost.

Street lights and the clock change

When the clocks changed last autumn, the photocells controlling the switching off of some of our street lights in the early hours fell out of sync due to a fault. This meant that the lights switched off earlier than intended, at approximately 10.45pm.

The South Glos Street Care team has replaced thousands of faulty photocells ready for the clock change this Sunday (26th October). The units have been replaced by the manufacturer at no charge to the council and 9,000 will have been installed by the time the clocks change. Unfortunately, there are 3,000 units still to replace, which are due to be done by the end of November, and some of those units are in the Ladden-Frome area - in Cromhall, Dodington, Falfield, Iron Acton, Rangworthy and Westerleigh. This means the street lights there will switch off at around 10.45pm and will slowly come back into line over two weeks (unless the units are replaced sooner than that).

Charfield leads the way on street lights

LED street lights are to be installed in Charfield this month as the first stage of a South Glos-wide roll out of the new technology.

Nearly 300 new lights are being installed in Charfield during January, reducing the parish’s street lighting costs from £11,000 to £3,500 per year and cutting related carbon emissions from 45 to 10 tonnes. Over the next decade, the new technology will be gradually installed in all of South Gloucestershire’s 30,000 street lights from May 2014, as part of a rolling investment programme.

Local councillor John O'Neill said, "Charfield has led the way with part night lighting and now with the new LED lighting technology. This will make for long term savings on our carbon reduction target and the South Gloucestershire Council budget which will benefit all Council Tax payers."

Street light switch off - Dodington Parish

As we previously reported, during 2013 South Glos Council will be extending its ‘part-night’ lighting scheme throughout South Gloucestershire. During July 2013 streetlights in Dodington Parish are programmed to be converted to switch off during the early hours of the morning.

You can view the detailed plans and associated information online. Print copies will also be available to view in Yate One Stop Shop and Yate library. You can also find out more online about part night lighting more generally, including the criteria for which lights are left on. If you have concerns that some of the criteria have not been applied correctly, you have until 12th June to make comments.

Street light switch-off roll-out

As we reported in October, South Glos will be rolling out the part-night lighting scheme, where some street lights are switched off in the early hours, across the area.  Part-night lighting has been running successfully in a number of Parishes, including Frampton Cotterell and Charfield, and is now due to be implemented in Westerleigh, Iron Acton, Rangeworthy, Cromhall and Failfield Parishes in the Ladden-Frome area in  March. You can find out more at www.southglos.gov.uk/partnightlighting and follow the link from there to the detailed plans for each Parish. The plans for Westerleigh Parish will also be available in Yate library.

Dodington Parish is due to be done in July and the plans will be available later.

All street lights will be switched to part-night operation except where there are crime or road safety issues. South Glos would like to hear from you if you think there are any specific lights that should be left on for these reasons but which are marked in the plans to be switched off. The deadline for comments is 25th February.

Street light switch-off update

Over the past 3 years, the council has turned off the streetlights from midnight until 5am in parts of South Glos following consultation with local residents via Parish and Town Councils. In May street lights on main roads were turned off after midnight except for those lights where safety issues were highlighted and agreed. Monitoring results show that traffic accidents and crime have not gone up since the lights were turned off at night. South Glos Council is now drawing up plans to consult with Parishes, Towns and residents in areas where the lights are still on at night and to complete the roll out of the scheme across the rest of South Gloucestershire. Westerleigh Parish had already started its own consultation. Please return the form if you want to highlight any locations where you think there may be safety issues. South Glos is aiming to save £250,000 on electricity and 1,000 tons of carbon emissions each year when the scheme is fully operational.

Badminton Road part night lighting

Last December, South Glos officers attended a meeting of Westerleigh Parish Council to present plans for switching street lights off in the early hours on A-roads, including Badminton Road. They have now decided to go ahead with the scheme. Some lights will be left on due to road safety issues or in areas of significant night time crime. If you have any concerns about particular locations, please use the contact form on the South Glos website.

Badminton Road street light switch-off - an update

Earlier in the year we reported that South Glos were planning on turning some of the lights on Badminton Road off in the early hours to save money and help the environment. Your Focus Team was concerned though that no consultation with residents was planned and got agreement that the change should be delayed until local people had had a chance to comment on the proposals.

It's now been agreed that the changes won't be made until April 2012 so that consultation can take place during the autumn and winter. A South Glos officer will attend a meeting of each of the Parish Councils and each of the Safer Strong Community Groups affected. They will write to local people to let them know about the Parish meeting.

Light switch-off for Badminton Road

Following the success of switching off some street lights for part of the night along the ring road and in a number of towns and villages, South Glos Council is planning to do the same for Badminton Road. The Council wanted to push ahead without consultation but your Focus team has persuaded them to take a little more time so we can get your feedback. A bit of local knowledge now could save much time and money later!

From the centre of Yate to just past the new Council offices, the lights would stay on all night. Between there and the Wick Wick roundabout (where the A432 meets the A4174 Ring Road), the lights would be switched off in the early hours except around the following:

• Church Road junction
• Woodend Road junction
• Beesmoor Road junction
• railway viaduct as you leave Coalpit Heath
• Park Lane
• Kendleshire Crossroads
• Cuckoo lane junction, just before Wick Wick roundabout

If you have any queries or comments, please contact Claire Young.

Consultation on Wickwar street lights

In January, we reported that Wickwar Parish Council was in discussion with South Glos about switching off street lights in the early hours.

Howard Gawler and members of Wickwar Parish Council together with the Police, have met with South Glos Street Lighting Team to further discuss the possible introduction of the switch off of streetlights in Wickwar after midnight to cut energy bills and carbon emissions.

A plan has now been produced with input from the Police and Highway Engineers. The plan will be consulted on at the Wickwar Annual Parish Meeting on May 9th. Further details of the meeting may be obtained from Mrs.Trull, the Clerk to the Parish Council. If approved, the changeover would take about two weeks and be ready for the Autumn.

Street lights off at night in Frampton Cotterell

Dave Hockey would like to thank local residents for the high level of support given to this project in the consultation carried out late last year. By the time you read this article 392 street lights in Frampton Cotterell Parish will have been fitted with a smart, selfcalibrating photocell which turns them off after midnight until about 5am.

The photographs show Lee Clarke from South Glos. Council’s Street Lighting Team with a photocell in his hand and another of Lee fitting one to a light in Upper Stone Close. This scheme will save an estimated £3,710 electricity costs and 23,335 kilograms of carbon emissions each year - it is good for the Council tax payer and for the environment. The cost of the change will be recovered in under a year and a half. 192 streetlights have been left on all night in line with South Glos. Council Policy. A review of the scheme is planned for March 2012 – in the meantime, any problems will be dealt with as they arise.

Big YES to lights off consultation

Frampton Cotterell parishioners have given overwhelming support to the proposal to turn off streetlights from midnight to 5am except for those identified by Highway Officers and Police be left on for safety reasons.

In the consultation which was kicked off at the Open Day held at the Brockeridge Centre on 9 October, 65% gave full support to the proposals, 27% gave qualified support and just 8% opposed them. After careful consideration the Parish Council has written to local residents who commented on the proposals.

Cllr. Dave Hockey said “It was great to see such a positive response with more than 9 out of 10 local residents backing the scheme. Frampton Cotterell Parish Council backed the plan at their January meeting. Adjustments to the draft plan were made to take account of comments made by many local residents. The approved scheme will now go ahead in March-April. A review of the effectiveness of the scheme is planned for March 2012."

Wickwar light switch-off?

Following the success in Charfield of switching off their streetlights for most of the night, your Parish Council are now in discussion with South Gloucestershire Council to see whether it is will be possible to do the same in Wickwar. A draft scheme has been prepared by SGC for discussion with the P.C. in January and then it will go out to public consultation shortly afterwards.

Each light can be dealt with separately, and for safety reasons, they are likely to be left on at busy road junctions and around the elderly person’s residences in the middle of the village. The switch off times would be approximately 12.30 a.m. to 5.00 a.m. Each light would need a modification, and they are therefore looking at the Autumn of 2011 for a start, if approved.