Dear Sir,
I used to teach History –  first we had The Dark Ages then much later The Age of Enlightenment. It was natural evolution. It was progress and part of what Bronowski called ‘The Ascent of Man’. Durham County Council, with their decision (after a flawed and prejudicial consultation process) to turn off the lights on many major urban roads within the county are turning this all on its head.
They plan to take us on a journey from enlightenment, back to the Dark Ages. It is crass and downright dangerous! What with all the gizmos, that we all concentrate on to some extent within our cars, drivers need the existing urban highway lighting. More cost effective lighting, yes, but not doing away with it.
Durham County Council have put the cart before the horse. They began with a decision to turn off the lights and then wanted evidence to prove their case. So they observed roads, such as the A 167, between Aycliffe Village and Rushyford, on such as a light, bright sunny September morning –  basically when there would be few real problems – as the basis of their evidence. This beggars belief!
If they had really been serious about consultation and gathering evidence, they would have informed the public that they were turning off all major urban highway lighting (none Motorway) for a period of 48 hours, in the middle of January. Can you imagine the chaos that would have caused?
But that was not the conclusion that would have fitted their predetermined decision. I predict that if this goes ahead and lights are turned off on major urban routes – the transport arteries of our town – havoc will ensue on the first foggy nights of the Winter months.
I urge Durham County Council to think again. Well, to think for the first time, actually! What next for County Durham? Do they advise Durham Tees Valley Airport to turn off their runway lighting to save them money? Do we have to change all of our English expressions, sayings and idioms?
Is it now to be ‘dark at the end of the tunnel’? Is it to be ‘to shed some dark on the subject’? Do we have to now rewrite the bible within our county and change ‘out of the darkness came light’, to ‘out of the darkness – came darkness!’
Derek G Atkinson
GATC Councillor, Simpasture.