Pilot Street Lighting Scheme Flawed

8.44.10am GMT Tue 20th Feb 2007

Maldon plunges into darkness this week, despite being an untypical district as a pilot for a major county-wide scheme. Conservatives at Essex County Council are behind the pilot, which Liberal Democrats say has been chosen deliberately to produce the least amount of resistance from residents and so give sanction to roll out across the county.

Cllr Keith Francis, Liberal Democrats spokesman for highways and transportation, said: "We have concerns for increased crime and fear of crime, that many people may experience during the extended hours of darkness. Cllr Rodney Bass, as the cabinet member responsible for this scheme, has stated that advanced reaction to the scheme has shown a prevalent 'fear of crime factor, particularly in the urban areas'. This begs the obvious question as to why, if he is determined to pursue this scheme, an urban area is not being used as the pilot.

"We are also concerned that rural Maldon now, followed by rural Uttlesford in April, might have been cherry-picked as test areas using the council's own research that shows residents of these areas are likely to feel safer after dark that in any other area in Essex. Logically, this is likely to produce a skewed set of results and falsely trigger the go-ahead for street lights to be turned off across the whole county.

"Large urban areas such as Harlow, Chelmsford, Basildon and Colchester all have vibrant and important night-time economies and these rely on customers feeling they can travel home safely late at night. This change could easily impact on countless small and medium-sized businesses, adversely affected by this ill-thought-out scheme."