18 October (Part 6) - In the dark
Very
little has been said either here or elsewhere about the plan to turn off
Bexley’s street lights between midnight and 5:30 a.m. It was mentioned at
the
Places Scrutiny meeting on 18th February and that was about it until a few
Welling residents found just a week or two ago that they had drawn the short straw.
Basically there had been no news until
the revamped Bexley Times put it on their front page a week ago.
Deputy leader Alex Sawyer says it is going to save £300,000 a year if extended
borough wide. He says it will be “if the council deems it successful”.
Good to see that he has abandoned the pretence of further consultation.
The likelihood is that the expenditure will be transferred to other budgets, the
police, Accident & Emergency, insurance companies and undertakers. Leaving parks
unlocked at night has seen some
unintended consequences but no doubt time will tell.
Bexley council’s notice to directly affected householders
may be read here. It includes a map but as it is devoid of street names it
is quite useless to anyone unfamiliar with the area. Bexley council at its best.