Shining a light on Palmerston North’s LED black spots

Did anyone ask about whether street lighting preled was up to standard?

The switch to LED street lights in Palmerston North has highlighted a range of blind spots.

Not just those gloomy patches in streets that simply don’t have enough light poles pointing in the right directions, but in whether our elected watchdogs have been paying attention. In recent weeks councillors have had their ears chewed by residents displeased by the results of the switch over in their streets, with some, like those in Martin St, seriously concerned about their safety after dark.

Councillors have passed on the message to management and staff with a few raised eyebrows and the odd ‘‘please explain’’.

Mostly, their displeasure has been about why the new lights have been fitted in neighbourhood streets where council staff already knew the lighting was insufficient.

There was a call to halt the janine.rankin@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

whole project while assessments were made about what it would take to bring everything up to standard, putting a potential $3.4 million government subsidy in jeopardy.

A compromise was agreed. No arterial routes will be switched over where it is known there are already shortcomings, and plans to upgrade residential streets retrospectively will be developed.

Newly-elected councillors excused, perhaps, it should not have come as a surprise to councillors that the LED programme was simply about replacing the lights, not shifting or extending or changing the arms on any poles.

And it might be councillors could have interested themselves somewhat earlier in what is one of the biggest spends in the budget – $2.1m in the residential streets alone. A search through the files shows there has been more than six years of homework put into the project.

Take this media report from August, 2011. ‘‘Palmerston North is about to become one of the first New Zealand cities to make the switch to eco-friendly LED street lights.’’

Cascade Cres and a cluster of neighbourhood streets in Milson were to be one of the first areas to have the new lights installed, following a smaller-scale trial in Vivian St which had attracted no complaints. In August 2013 the Milson trial was reported to have attracted positive feedback from residents. Hillary Cres in Ashhurst and the block of Palmerston North’s Linton St between College St and Park Rd were signalled to follow Kensington Mews, Wharite Place, Massey St and Alan St.

The early trials cut energy use by 59 per cent. The lamps were lasting for 50,000 hours, compared to the conventional high pressure sodium lamps, which lasted 5000 hours. Then in 2015, it was quite clearly stated: ‘‘The new lamps would replace the old ones in some 5500 of the city’s 7807 street lights in a simple changeover using existing poles and fittings.’’

A replacement programme. Not a review of the adequacy of the placement and condition of existing poles and fittings.

Did anyone ask then whether that was going to produce satisfactory outcomes? Not so far as we recall. Did anyone ask about whether street lighting pre-led was up to standard? Or did they just assume it did? The project could have, should have been a glowing example of forwardthinking, caring for the planet, and achieving savings for ratepayers. Instead, it has revealed a break down in communications, and people being kept in the dark.

END NOTE:

The English language is tricky. It is full of words that are hard to spell. Interest groups and specialists have scattered it with all sorts of jargon.

Others have seized ordinary words and applied very particular meanings to them when used in a certain context. And then there are those plain words that have more than one meaning.

Take the word ward. It can be used to describe a child in someone else’s care, but not so often. It can be used to an electorate of voters, defined by geography or ethnicity, but clearly, that is not its most common meaning. Most people use the word in the context that hospitals have wards.

This explains how Facebook discussion about the Palmerston North City Council consulting the public on a proposal to introduce one or two Maori wards degenerated into something of a slanging match about healthcare.

The author of the original article was bewildered by the confusion, and wondered whether there was a simpler way of telling the story. Would people understand better if we explained that the proposal is about having one or two seats at the council table guaranteed for Maori?

Or would they just mouth off about how they should bring their own furniture? Or suggest that they stand? Well, actually, standing for election is exactly what we’re talking about. It is safe to say so now, at the end of an article, which I’m sure none of the muppets will be reading, that it is scary to know people who do not have the attention span to read beyond a headline or the first clue about local government have a vote.