Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:

1.         That the Cabinet approved the implementation of a mechanism (as detailed in paragraphs 16-19 of the submitted report) to allow District/Borough Councils to enhance the level of service and request all lights in their area be excluded from Part Night Lighting and to reimburse the County Council the full value of savings that would be realised by switching them off.

2.         That authority be delegated to the Head of Highways and Transport, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highways, to enter into specific agreements with requesting District or Borough Councils.

Reasons for Decisions

District and Borough Councils have their own budgets and across the County will have differing local priorities.  Enabling them to request lights be excluded from Part Night lighting allows them to respond to those differing priorities by enhancing the level of service provided over and above that delivered by the County Council.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Environment and Infrastructure Select Committee.]

The Cabinet Member for Highways reminded Members that the Cabinet had approved the implementation of Part Night Street Lighting in October 2016.  He said that many other authorities had also taken similar action and all of the lights selected had focussed on non-traffic routes and had been risk assessed against a number of “Avoidance Criteria” which if present would mean the lights would be left on. 

He went on to explain that there was a process in place to ask for roads to be reassessed and stated that there was currently a delay with processing these and he requested that residents note that this was due to Surrey Police and the Council’s Road Safety Team needing to examine each situation on a case by case basis.

He highlighted that the £210,000 saving would pay for 1 kilometre of major repair on the highway or 5 kilometres of surface dressing.

He explained that since the implementation of Part Night Lighting, some partner councils had expressed an interest in covering the cost of keeping the lights were currently included in Part Night Lighting programme on. He stated that the report sought authority to start conversations with those interested in this with a view to drawing up five year agreements with invoices to be issued twice a year.

The environmental effect of CO2 was discussed and it was confirmed that this would equate to a 2% reduction in carbon taxes.

Members agreed that it was important to listen to residents views however there was a need to ensure that the full cost of officer time involved in the programme needed to be incorporated into the overall charges. It was also reflected that there have been a number of comments made by residents who are in support of having the lights turned off with reasons including being able to see the night sky, improved sleep as the streetlight near a bedroom window and a positive impact on wildlife.

The Cabinet Member for Highways stated that to date, only one borough had expressed a wish to take this approach forward and that was largely due to its vicinity to Heathrow Airport and having a large number of shift workers living in this area.

RESOLVED:

1.         That the Cabinet approved the implementation of a mechanism (as detailed in paragraphs 16-19 of the submitted report) to allow District/Borough Councils to enhance the level of service and request all lights in their area be excluded from Part Night Lighting and to reimburse the County Council the full value of savings that would be realised by switching them off.

2.         That authority be delegated to the Head of Highways and Transport, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highways, to enter into specific agreements with requesting District or Borough Councils.

Reasons for Decisions

District and Borough Councils have their own budgets and across the County will have differing local priorities.  Enabling them to request lights be excluded from Part Night lighting allows them to respond to those differing priorities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91