Over the last few months Suffolk County Council has been moving to an Intelligent Street Lighting System, allowing the council to switch off some street lights, dim others, and leave some on – all by remote control. I am very much in favour of this scheme which will take us back to how things were, before the wasteful days when it became cheaper to leave lights on than switch them off. This – as we all know –  is no longer the case.

The Intelligent Light System will come into use  in Woodbridge on 26 March 2012.

From that date, many street lights that are less than 6m high and owned by SCC will be switched off between midnight and 5:30am. See below for a map of what lights are/are not affected . Individual consideration will be given to:

• Lights at major junctions/roundabouts;

• Town centres with CCTV, high security businesses like banks, areas of high night time pedestrian usage, and outside community facilities or leisure centres;

• Areas where street lights are needed to reduce road accidents;

• Areas where there could be an increase in crime through reduced lighting, eg. pubs or specific residential areas;

• Remote alleys linking residential streets;

• Lights near pedestrian crossings, footbridges, subways, and in public car parks;

• Lights near bus stops;level crossings, speed humps and traffic lights;

• Where there is sheltered housing for the elderly.

Dimming of street lights over 6m may also occur where funding permits, where traffic flows are low and where a lower level of lighting will not affect road safety. In such cases, the lights will be dimmed to 80% of their normal power between 9pm and 1am and to 60% of their normal power between 1am and 5am.

The system has fully adjustable settings allowing us to change and have alternative settings for different days of the week, tweak individual lights as required, take account of British Summertime, or stay on for longer for special events or holidays such as Christmas and New Year. It is estimated that this system will save council-tax payers at least £550,000 a year energy bills, as well as providing a CO2 reduction of over 4000 tonnes by April 2013.

It will also enable more of us to see more of the night sky at long last.