Back in 2011, Lush Places was landed with the unwelcome addition of a mass of bright white street lights.
They appeared all around the village square and marched like War of the World aliens along the road to the primary school, and all without any public consultation.
Subsequent protests to the county council fell on deaf ears.
Our erstwhile leaders insisted the lights were necessary to illuminate new traffic calming measures, on which the village had been consulted although the new lights were never once mentioned, nor did they appear on the plans shown to residents.
Understandably, there was uproar and outrage.
I blogged about it at the time. Here’s the link.
We were all set to join forces, stop the traffic and have a game of football under the new floodlights, just to prove the point that they were brighter than anything the village had ever seen. And the hideous poles were more in keeping with an edge-of-town industrial estate than a pretty rural village where King Charles II once holed up for the night back in 1651 when he was on the run.
Despite numerous meetings, letters and the support of our local MP, we were given the brush off.
We put in blackout curtains to help us sleep at night and a shield was installed on the lamp outside my neighbour’s house to try to stop the glare piercing through their window.
Disquiet built up. I made a formal complaint to the council about how the lights had just appeared without anyone knowing it was going to happen.
The complaint was partially upheld, particularly the bit about lack of consultation. At the time, the council pledged to learn from its mistake and make sure the public was consulted on lighting schemes in the future.
New lighting schemes are being installed across the county as part of a private finance initiative and, according to Dorset Council’s website, the contractor is responsible for the ‘customer interface’. Whether this means public consultation, I have no idea. My proficiency in local authority jargon has lapsed in recent years.
But, anyway, it would not be unreasonable to assume that local residents likely to be affected by new street lights would at least be notified before installation, either by the council or the contractor.
It seems not.
These have recently appeared up the road.
It’s difficult to photograph accurately, but the three lights really are that bright, shining into windows at night like static searchlights.
The good thing is that the new lanterns are energy saving, and they were fixed to existing poles, although in some places in Dorset, streetlights are turned off at night to reduce costs.
The official line is that the lanterns do ‘appear different as they are now a white light which is remarked upon by some’.
Remarked upon? Screamed about, more like.
But there is no mention of public consultation. However, there are ways of making people talk…
Maddie Grigg 