A report scheduled to be presented before the Westmorland and Furness Council's Communities and Environment Scrutiny Committee highlights the council policy to remove 712 footway lights in the former Eden council area. These lights, not adopted by parish councils previously, face disconnection and removal as they fail or break, with 294 units already removed due to failures.
The councils policy stems from a policy initiated by the former Eden Council, which pressured parish councils to accept footway lighting or face no lighting at all in the future. As a result, the unadopted footway lights in question are now deemed for removal once they malfunction, with no replacements.
While some parish councils took on ownership and responsibility for streetlights in their communities, not all did including Penrith Town Council, leaving unadopted footway lights in Penrith vulnerable to removal as they break. Westmorland and Furness Council had acknowledged the poor standard of the existing stock, citing years of neglect and a lack of investment by the former councils they replaced last April.
In other areas of the Westmorland and Furness Council district, such as the former Barrow council, footway lighting responsibility falls directly on Westmorland and Furness council with no lighting passed to parish councils. However, a revelation from the report indicates the council can find no record of energy bills ever being paid for powering footway lighting in the Barrow area.
Westmorland and Furness Council are now looking to harmonise its footway lighting policy this process will be considered by the councils Communities and Environment Scrutiny Committee, with the current policy of removing broken unadopted lights in Eden without replacement in place for the time being.
The report by the councils Assistant Director Sustainable Transport & Highways also states there is no statutory requirement on local authorities in the United Kingdom to provide public lighting. The report also claims light pollution is growing at “an alarming rate around 2% each year which is higher than population growth” and “research has suggested this rate may be as high as 10%.”
A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness Council said: “Following Local Government Reorganisation, Westmorland and Furness Council adopted a number of different policies from former councils in relation to the management of road and footway lighting. This includes former Eden District Council who’s approach was to programme assets for removal or disconnection once failed.
“The report presented to Communities and Environment Scrutiny Committee sets out our current position. This is our first step in the process of developing a new policy for the Council that will harmonise the way road and footway lighting is managed across the area.
“Town and Parish Council’s will be engaged with as the new policy is developed to ensure our new approach benefits our communities.”
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