Agenda item

5.1

A petition had been received from Katie Memmott which had received 6 signatures:

“Better and Brighter Street Lighting for Walkley

We the undersigned petition the council to provide better street lighting for the people of Walkley. Currently, the far cheaper LED alternative bulbs being used in streetlights are not bright enough for young women and children in particular to feel safe walking down their own street at night. We are petitioning for the Council to replace all residential street lights in Walkley with brighter lights, and not to put concerns over cost above the safety of Walkley residents.

Brighter street lights would help the people of Walkley feel safer, especially as the nights draw in and it becomes dark earlier. For those concerned about bright lights outside their bedroom window, I would remind them that these LED lights are quite a recent change, and the brighter bulbs that were used before did not cause sleep disturbances.”

The Chair responded with the following answer:

In 2012 Sheffield City Council through the Streets Ahead embarked on a street lighting initiative which involved replacing over 50,000 street lighting columns and all existing street lighting lanterns also were changed for new more expensive and more efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lanterns. Street Lighting in the Walkley area, as all areas in Sheffield, was designed to British Standards BS5489 to attain specific lighting outputs to the British standards.

Designers made sure the British standards were met, and to this they took into consideration lantern power, optic type, optic angle, column height/spacings, traffic usage and road speed/ width to achieve the correct standard for the road.

A walk and build design process / package for every road considered the specific column height, position, and location, carefully positioning the column and lantern as to avoid obtrusive light into homes adhering to Institute of Lighting Professionals (ILP) guidance on obtrusive lighting which sets out levels for the specific environment.

A street lighting design seeks to attain the correct lighting output to the British Standards for the road while not wasting energy by “over lighting” the road. This work achieves a reduction in energy costs and lowers Sheffield City Council’s carbon footprint of which annual targets have to be met through the Streets Ahead contract.

Appreciate that despite this there are some specific roads in Walkley which may be presenting concerns in relation to low levels of lighting or in obtrusive lighting, and if these roads could be forwarded to us, we would be happy to carry out some on site testing to measure whether these levels are in compliance and consider what else can be achieved to allay concerns.

It is possible to vary the lighting levels as the street lighting columns have a range of levels to which they can be adjusted. If the public notify the council of particularly problematic areas, the council can review the lighting in that area.

5.2

A question had been received from Andrew Dyson from the Yorkshire Branch of Railfuture. Andrew Dyson did not attend the meeting to ask their question therefore a written response would be provided.