According to a news report on this site yesterday the powers that be are planning the biggest switch off of street lights in Bucks so far. More than 1,000 lights are going off in order to save cash. Some of the county’s major A-roads will be affected including the A40 from Wycombe to Gerrards Cross.

Of course I could go on to say how terrible it is that yet again services are being cut while the Council Tax goes up but in this instance I wont say it. Why not you ask? Well, in the case of the busy A40 surely the health and safety implications are of a greater concern than the cuts in service. As a result of the experimental street light turn off on the Hughenden Road there weren’t any major accidents but the A40 is a much busier road.

Last night, as usual, before turning in for the night I took a peek out of my bedroom window just to make sure everything was alright. In the distance the lights of Wycombe were burning brightly but there wasn’t a soul to be seen. Unnecessarily lighting the streets does seem an awful waste of energy. Soon the busy A40 will be in darkness while unused roads on housing estates will be fully lit! To the powers that be this may make sense but I can’t see the logic.

So is there a better alternative? Well, why not start by turning off the lights on the housing estates and rather than turning them all off why not turn off every other light for part of the time? Surely a boffin in a lab could invent a time switch capable of turning off the lights between 11pm and 6am. By only turning off half the lights at least there would be some light to see by.

People are most likely to notice the loss of lighting on the A40 thus the powers that be can trumpet the scheme and bolster their green credentials. No doubt the switching off will feature in the next issue of the Community Monthly (or whatever the magazine that drops through our doors is called).