Campaign Success Surrey Streetlighting

This is how Rob got involved in this:

• I noticed that streetlights in the areas of Surrey I travel around seemed to have many 'failed-on', ie lights are on all day.

• I l ooked at the SCC website to find out how the council were addressing this. The only information was a mechanism for reporting individual faulty lights - either 'failed-on' or 'failed off' or damaged by accident - rather than anything deeper about this being a known problem, or any data on how extensive it is, or even if it were considered a problem. (or indeed if energy usage for street lighting was considered an area for management attention)

• Started reporting faults, and found by observation that some faults would take several weeks to clear. Resorted to writing to local Woking paper to report one that was faulty in my road which was unfixed after 6 weeks, to get action.

• Tracked down SCC engineer responsible for streetlighting, had a couple of email and phone call exchanges with him about the handling of faults. Learnt from him that SCC had promise of PFI money to replace all across the county.

• Read the limited papers published at the time by SCC on their intentions, tabled question to the Woking Local Committee (transport) on the energy efficiency of the planned replacement scheme, particularly the possibility of switching off lights after midnight. Followed up anodyne response at the meeting with existing contact officer at SCC to put forward ideas for more progressive thinking on energy efficiency.

• All went quiet for about a year after the PFI funding was apparently held back

• Surrey Ad article was not foreseen - I have yet to find out just how much of my input on energy efficiency is to be incorporated, and my streetlighting engineer officer has moved on, so I have to rebuild the contact.

For the Surrey Advertiser article see here.

Dunsfold Park Planning enquiry

Guildford and waverley's briefing statement on Dunsfold Park here.

Full details of Friends of the Earth's submission in favour of Dunsfold can be found here.

Some excerpts from this last document are shown below:

"It is evident that this development would be one the UK’s most sustainable settlements, and certainly one of the most advanced in the planning process and that point is key in terms of taking action on climate change. The proposal is an unprecedented opportunity to deliver the objectives of PPS1 Climate Change Supplement and the draft PPS on Eco-Towns whilst at the same time addressing the urgent affordable housing need in Waverley.  I’m personally not aware of any comparable proposal this far advanced in the planning process."

 

"Climate change can only be tackled by real changes in the operation of society. Some of these changes require high level action on renewable energy. However, there is an urgent need for low carbon exemplars in the UK. Dunsfold is not only an example of a low carbon development proposal but it is to my knowledge the best advanced. So long as the aspirations and environmental performance of the application are properly secured by the S106 Unilateral Undertaking, it would make the scheme a vital step in the ultimate goal of achieving a vibrant low carbon economy. For this reason as well as the compatibility of the scheme with national planning policy Friends of the Earth strongly urges that the appeal be upheld."

 

Friends of the Earth's response to the decision by John Denham, Secretary of State for the Environment , to uphold his lnspector's decision to refuse Dunsfold Park's appeal for
an eco-village near Guildford here.