Therefore it is not unreasonable for people and organisations to be looking for ways to tighten their respective belts.
Our "beloved" local councils (ever keen to preserve their perks) have come up with one way to save money, by turning off approximately 9% of street lights (saving an estimated £21M per annum).
Now, aside from the legitimate arguments put forward that darkened streets (if the dimming policy is not well thought through) are a haven fro criminals and assorted "dodgy characters", there is a small fly in Nanny's money saving oinkment.
It would appear that the capital cost of the dimming technology used to save money exceeds the annual savings. Estimates are that some councils will not see a positive return on their expenditure (note I did not use the word "investment") until eight years from now.
Whilst I fully appreciate that capital expenditure does take some time to recover, before a positive return can be made; eight years is a hell of a long time to wait. A more reasonable period of return for a capital project of this nature (let's face it this isn't at the level of complexity of the Channel Tunnel) should be 2-4 years maximum.
To paraphrase Sir Edward Grey:
"The lamps are going out all over Britain. We shall not see them lit again in our time!"
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I wonder whether these local authorities will be making similar 'savings' by switching off lights in their town halls and other offices, or cutting out perks and jollies ('fact finding trips')for council executives and councillors? No, I didn't think so!
ReplyDeleteI wish Northamptonshire had only turned off 9%! It's about 50%! It's actually more dangerous than turning the lights off altogether, since your eyes are constantly adapting from light to dark. If you are in the light of a lamp that is lit, you can't see in to the black zone of the unlit area ahead.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/Transport/roads/Pages/StreetLightingswitchoff.aspx
If it takes eight years to see a return, then long before then, Labour will be back in power, the silly spending will be back on the adgenda and all the dimmers will be removed at even more cost.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is, these people can only see there way out of any problem - including spending to much money - by, er, spending money. It's the very opposite of the dead hand of some accountants in the private sector that will not sanction any expenditure unless savings can be demonstrated (instead of opportunities to expand the business.
ReplyDeleteWhen will we get back to having things run by people who can make an intelliegent balanced judgement?
What is the "dimming technology" or switching off a few lights? Only local councils could use that as an excuse for hiring consultants and wasting yet more money.
ReplyDeleteThey have been switching off street lamps round here for a while now, funnily enough it is always in areas of social Housing, what used to be called Council Estates, where the only people not scared of going out at night are the bad boys.