Streetlight saga

As planned, Wilshire Council have been upgrading Salisbury street lights to LED over the last couple of months and Stratford sub Castle saw most of its remaining sodium lights converted during the week of 15th June.  The old columns were retained meaning the changeover only took around 15 minutes per light.  

LED lights use considerably less energy than the older sodium units, are more directional, reducing ‘sky glow’ and glare and can be dimmed during off-peak periods to further reduce energy consumption.  Traditional street lighting had to be replaced every 3 – 6 years as the units wore out, but the new lights are expected to last 20 – 25 providing further cost efficiencies. 

Vandalism of the lights between Mill Lane and the church in 2017 meant that the lights in the northern end of the village were replaced with LED back in 2018 but the southern part of the village is only now getting used to the new ‘warm white’ light, beneficial because it enables the human eye to see natural colours at night, improving visibility for road users and pedestrians  Piecemeal conversions due to earlier damage also means that while the majority are of the latest type, we have a variety of styles of LED in the village, and four of the old sodium lights still remain, presumably to be converted soon.