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Village street lights turned off for energy trial

BBC A bird's eye view of the A1079 road going through Hayton at night. Three cars, fairly far apart are seen driving along with their headlights on. Several streetlights are dotted along either side of the road and some houses are visible.BBC
The project is part of an initiative to reduce the UK's carbon footprint by focusing on replacing street lighting

Street lights will be turned off and replaced with footway lighting in a village as part of a energy-saving trial.

All 30 of Hayton's lampposts will be turned off in the next two months until March 2026 by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

They will be replaced with energy-efficient footpath lighting and solar-powered road studs.

The initiative is being paid for out of £3.3m government funding given to the council as part of a UK project, Live Labs 2, designed to reduce the carbon footprint of street lights across the country.

A man with very short hair and blue eyes smiling into the camera and wearing a yellow hi-vis jacket and a shirt. He is standing next to a road with a grass verge either side with a few blurred cars visible behind him.
Karl Rourke said he wants to "reassure everybody" that lighting will still be provided in communities

The trial is being carried out along the 31-mile stretch of the A1079 Hull-to-York road and the A164.

The council said the project would introduce the "next generation" of road signs and road markings.

Its service manager for street lighting, traffic signals and CCTV, Karl Rourke, said thermal-imaging cameras would be used at the test sites to monitor driver behaviour and ensure the changes were safe.

A man with brown hair which is long on the top and short at the sides looking into the camera and wearing a blue overalls shirt. He is standing in a mechanic's garage with various objects behind him and a black car to the right of him.
Apprentice mechanic Charlie Wilson said the council should keep the street lights in Hayton

He said the project included introducing more visual prompts for drivers including reflective materials in signage, white lines and illuminated road studs.

"The driver will be able to see where the road is going way beyond what they can see through the headlights," he said.

Mr Rourke said lighting was still being provided in communities.

"We are not proposing to turn any lights off where there are pedestrians and communities already. Neither are we proposing to bring these trials into major urban areas. We are proposing a switch from street lights being the default setting to new ways of doing it."

Charlie Wilson, apprentice mechanic at Hayton Service Station, said headlights on cars had improved but believed street lights should be spared.

"If you drive through the village you can still see people walking or on bikes. I would say keep them," he said.

The council has 40,000 street lights and 2,300 illuminated signs and 75% have been converted to lower-energy LED lighting.

The authority said it cost £1.84m in electricity and £850,000 in column maintenance each year.

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