Letter - Refreshed at lighting
How refreshing to read Ian Stevenson’s letter (January 6) ‘Leave the lights off’. At last some fresh thinking with some common sense and reason.
If you look at a nocturnal satellite picture of the UK you realise how much lighting we have. How much of this, though, is really necessary?
A lot of lighting is just about habit. There are schools and clinics in this area which are ridiculously over-lit with flood and ‘security’ lights. The idea seems to be that it deters intruders. More likely, it attracts them. One left light on in a home is far more effective at deterring burglary than any number of outside ‘security lights’.
A lot of this street-lighting is indeed an enormous waste of money and energy. The band British Sea Power had it right in their song ‘Lights Out for Darker Skies’.
John Roberts
St John’s Court
Wakefield
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Friday 25 May 2012
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ManicManiac
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 02:35 PMAs I have already pointed out in another related post, security lighting does not attract or make life easy for intruders or attackers. If it does then why do muggers prefer to attack their victims in dark alleyways, or in poorly lit areas? Good security lighting significantly increases the chances of someone spotting an intruder and making a call to the emergency services, or limits the amount of time the intruder has to carry out whatever they are doing. Conversely under the cover of darkness there is significantly less chance of a person being identified or caught in the act. It also gives the intruder more time to break and enter if that is what they intend to do. When burglaries have taken place near us, most of the properties broken into have been those with little or no security lighting. In one incident near us a house was broken into whilst the streetlight outside was defective. In another incident a burglar broke into a property via a much more difficult route, and probably because even with the neighbours' security lights, the area in which he gained entry remained poorly lit. If you think security lights make life easier for crooks, why not complain to trading standards that 'security' lights are being incorrectly marketed, or that the Police are misleading the public by telling them to fit them?
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