Street lights to be turned off at night in parts of Uckfield

Street lights look set to be turned off during the night in parts of Uckfield as the county council introduces a ‘part-night lighting scheme’.

Similar changes have already been made in Heathfield and Uckfield has been identified as the next potential location, according to a report going to Uckfield Town Council’s environment and leisure committee meeting tonight.

The report says the scheme is due to start this month.

It includes installing ‘white light lanterns’ on the main traffic routes - Eastbourne Road, Lewes Road, Church Street and the High Street. The lights will be dimmed to 50 per cent strength between the hours of midnight and 6am.

White light lanterns will also be installed on estate feeder roads and local distributor roads. Fifty per cent of them will be switched off between midnight and 5.30am. The remainder will continue to provide all night lighting.

On all other estate roads there will be part-night lighting with lights off between midnight and 5.30am.

Uckfield town councillors are to consider liaising with the county council to include street lights which are owned by the town council – about 199 of them – in the scheme.

The town council has £5,000 in its reserves for the installation of street light timers and that money could be put towards the project.

The report says: “The guide price for photocell changing is £30 per unit. It may not be possible to convert all lanterns by simply installing replacement cells and in some cases either additional work or replacement lanterns may be required.”