A Skansa surveyor was scouting the roads off Stondon Park (Parbury, Tatnell, etc) yesterday. Looks like the new lights are coming to these roads soon...

Fingers crossed.

Although I am not suggesting that there is a direct relationship, but a car was broken into on Westbourne Drive (near the Perry Vale junction) at the weekend in one of the affected areas.

I know it's partly a matter of taste, but I really don't like the new, white lights. When I turn off a road with the old sodium lights into one of the roads with new lights, I instantly feel my heart sink into my boots. The lighting is so cold and harsh, with pools of darkness, it's quite depressing. However, we may get used to them - I remember the sodium lights coming in when I was a child and how horrified we were at how bright they were.

What is not a matter of taste is questions of safety. As a driver, I have noticed that road humps, pedestrians and (stupid) cyclists dressed in dark colours are harder to spot with the new lights. I see them, but much later than with the old lights. Sunderland Road worries me a great deal. My teenaged daughter walks along here every evening in the dark and is already concerned about the dark stretches where the lights are on the other side of the road.

Looks like a great solution was reached for the lights on Church Rise.... Chop the trees down that are in the way..... Sorted.

That or a HUGE coincidence that a seemingly well established and healthy tree is being felled today.
[attachment=1644]

Aren't they just being pollarded? They do it to those types of trees every few years. It leaves them looking odd but the branches do grow back.

They did them at the end of autumn. But I take it all back, the tree is still there just RE-pollarded! Very strange, just the one tree. Very little has ben done at all in fact.
Glad its still there though

Maybe they were trying to get it the right way up. It appears to be sideways.

lol very good rsh

Following a very pleasant conversation this morning, here are the before and after pics of the works carried out. Still a little baffled by the need for them, but im sure there was a logical reason.... honest!

Before
[attachment=1646]

After
[attachment=1647]

Obviously it has been cut back a little, but its regrowth is the same as the rest of the trees on the road, so the need for it is unclear

The new lamps are a real improvement to Sunderland raid area. Less pollution, much cleaner lightness, and more atmospheric, with nice low key black lamp posts.
Well done lewisham

I don't like the new lamp posts much either, and the sharper focusing of the light gives a more patchy and less holistic feel to streets. Still, I'm sure they will be cheaper to run, which I guess is what is driving the renewal.

At the back of my house the new lamp at the end of a cul-de-sac is taller than the houses and trees and gives a really eerie feel to the street. It looks like something from outer space - see picture.

I did contact Skanska who told me that there was nothing wrong with a one-size-fits-all approach because each lamp only has a 60w bulb in it and 'The street lighting has been designed to be taller in order to light the street to the current British Standards. The taller street lighting columns are more energy efficient and are able to light larger areas individually than the old street lighting.'

What we have though, is pools of light and dark, strange spots along the street and in the day time rather too tall posts. Of course, as an earlier comment says this is a matter of taste, and some people will like the new lights. I think they exhibit the triumph of economy over aesthetics.
[attachment=1649]

They've started on my road (Mayow Road). Came along last week and put in the new lamposts. Came back today to put in the smaller posts and lamps for road signs that are currently attached to existing lamposts. So that was efficient. Also, I notice that the new posts are secured with tarmac, not concrete like the old lamps. Is that going to be permanent? We have rather nice paving that was renewed a few years ago and now it is riddled with nasty black tarmac patches. Looking at the state of the roads this winter, I don't think tarmac is the best material. But maybe they will replace it with concrete later. Does anyone know?

The council resurfaced and repaved our road so that it looks really wonderful. Prior to that the pavement had been pock marked with splodges of black tarmac which looked really ugly. The tarmac only went when the new paving was laid.

As soon as the new lamposts were announced I wrote and asked whether the new holes would be filled with tarmac which would have made the new paving look more like the old. The reply was that they probably didn't need to change the posts in our road. Well that was a relief, of sorts.

The new lights might be nice or nasty according to taste. They are certainly cheap, so a cheap filling of tarmac would seem about par for the course.

I'm going to email the council about the tarmac. Seems totally inadequate to me. One good storm and they'll be over!

yeah, and there has been so much rain since they announced the drought last Spring. Let's hope they don't announce another one before Easter.

Street furniture and paving make such a big impact on the community environment, that it is reasonable to expect the Council not to be too cheapskate in dealing with these. Putting in a dollop of tarmac is cheap, but it is unfair to expect everyone to just put up with it. I expect in the long run it makes more economic sense to replace pavement slabs.

Kipya - did you contact Lewisham directly or the co-ordination named on the first page of this thread? Want to make sure my email gets to the right person.

i can remember when the streetlights were 35 watts. it may be that we now have fewer lampposts if the bulbs are now 60 watts.

RHS - I contacted Lewisham who put me through to Skanska. The person tasked with fending off enquires is marc.zahra@skanska.co.uk

However there replies are badly written and intone 'energy efficiency' and 'British Standards'.

I suspect that a better purchase may be achieved through contacting your ward councillor. I contacted Cllr Alex Feakes, who responded at least.

...and the new bulbs are 60w.

whoops, I meant RSH

Thanks, kipya.

... and I meant "their replies"