Opposition Calls for Rethink on Streetlighting Cuts
Petition asks Hounslow Council to abandon plan to dim brightness
Hounslow Council is hoping to save £200,000. Picture: Chiswick Conservatives
January 31, 2025
The Conservative opposition on Hounslow Council is calling for a rethink of proposed changes to the borough’s streetlighting arrangements.
As part of a package of proposals to cut the budget deficit by £12million, a report has recommended that dimming streetlights could save £200,000.
The Conservatives say that the brightness of streetlights in the borough has already been dimmed by 40% since 2018.
Opposition councillors cite recent Streetsafe data, collected by the Metropolitan Police, which shows better streetlighting is consistently ranked as one of the top requests from residents in Hounslow when asked about how to make their community feel safer. They say they have repeatedly raised the issues of perception of safety, and in particular women's safety, with regard to poor streetlighting.
In addition to the risk of crime, the councillors have raised issues of safety resulting from poorly lit streets, including slips and falls caused by uneven pavements and wet leaves, as well as poor visibility for cyclists using dimly lit streets.
Cllr Ron Mushiso, who represents Chiswick Gunnersbury ward, has started a petition, which at the time of writing, had over 300 signatures, having been set up only a week ago.
It states that signatories “believe that good lighting and visibility in our local area are crucial to making our streets safer” and that “as council taxpayers, we (signatories) want to ensure our money is being spent on improving our local areas and ask the council to reconsider its proposed cuts to street lighting.”
Cllr Mushiso added, “One of the core responsibilities of any local authority is to keep residents safe, and we know that good levels of streetlighting is crucial to achieving this. The council is scrambling to find money to bailout its mismanagement of the Lampton Group, a council owned business which made a loss of over £11 million last year. I firmly believe residents shouldn’t have to pay for this mismanagement by living in a less safe, poorly lit borough, and hope the strength of feeling from this petition makes the council reconsider.”
In a recent Scrutiny Committee meeting, Council leader Shantanu Rajawat confirmed that the planned cuts were for “efficiency savings” throughout the borough’s network of streetlights. He told the meeting that conversations with the police as to how the savings would be achieved safely were continuing.
The petition, which remains open to signatories and will be presented at the borough’s budget setting meeting later in February, can be found here.
Cllr Shivraj Grewal, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Recycling and Transformation at Hounslow Council, said, “This proposed saving is part of a broader review of how we can efficiently manage our lighting across Hounslow. We will carefully consider all options and any proposal will be subject to consultation from our key stakeholders who will be able to give us an idea of the most likely impact such a decision would have.”
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |