Agenda item

To receive the report of Stephen Skinner, Head of Highway Services.

Stephen Skinner, Head of Highway Services presented the report highlighting the following:

i)             The report explained the arrangements for street lighting in Enfield and reviews the current position regarding crime, including the fear of crime, and to explore any associations between the two.

ii)            In 2006, Enfield Council entered into a Streetlighting PFI for a 25-year period, which requires the service provider, Enfield Lighting Services (ELS), to manage and maintain Enfield’s street lights on behalf of Enfield Council until 2031.

iii)           The new street lights installed during the first 5-year period of the PFI were designed in accordance with the British Standard and Institute of Lighting Professionals (ILP) guidance documents relevant at that time.

iv)           Most residential roads were designed to a specific lighting class called S2, which was at the higher end of the range of lighting levels required by the British Standard for residential roads and provided an average brightness of 10lux and a minimum of 3lux. Main roads and town centres were designed to a higher standard

v)            By way of comparison, the natural lighting conditions provided by moonlight (full moon) typically provides 1lux and night-time with no moon provides less than 0.01lux.

vi)               In 2013/14, the lights were dimmed to save energy; an approach adopted by many authorities at that time. The power supply was reduced by 50%, which reduced the lighting level for the S2 class from an average of 10lux to an average of 2.3lux.

vii)             In July 2019 full Council approved a project to convert all Enfield’s street lights to LEDs, controlled by a new central management system (CMS), which would further reduce Enfield’s electrical consumption by over 50% and provide associated reductions in carbon emissions.

viii)           A significant benefit of LED lighting is that it provides a much clearer, whiter light that is closer to natural daylight and gives better colour rendition at night than the old-style yellow lanterns. This is particularly beneficial for identification and CCTV recordings.

ix)               A further benefit is that a LED lighting source is more controlled and direct, meaning less stray ‘backlight’ into peoples’ homes. Stray backlighting caused numerous complaints with the previous street lights resulting in back-shields being fitted to luminaires in situations where this caused problems for residents.

x)                  As part of the development of the LED proposals, the Street Lighting team worked closely with the Council’s Community Safety Team who identified a number of crime ‘hot spots’ in the borough. The lighting in these roads was increased by one lighting class.

xi)               Further detailed information was provided on the LED upgrade and the levels of illumination provided by the new LED lights which in summary are at last as bright as before.

xii)             The programme to install 22,943 LED luminaires started in February 2020 and is now substantially complete, with approximately 1000 still to install. The programme appears to have been well received by the public with low numbers of complaints being received from residents and Councillors. However some concerns  had been raised by residents regarding lights being too bright, which generally occurred during the period immediately after installation before the correct power profile had been applied via CMS, or where properties are very close to a street light, and these issues have been resolved by fitting a back shield. There were also a few concerns from residents that the lighting levels were to dark.

xiii)           In roads where complaints have been received photometric tests were undertaken to check both the average and minimum lighting levels provided. In all cases the tests confirmed that actual levels met the designed levels apart from one recent test in Bowes ward, where it was found that the low light levels were caused by overgrown street trees and arrangements have been made to prune the trees in order to remedy this.

xiv)           Several residents in Bowes Ward have raised concerns that Enfield’s street lights are much darker than Haringey’s. Officers have liaised with Haringey’s Street Lighting team and are aware that Haringey’s residential roads are currently lit at two lighting classes higher than Enfield’s (apart from midnight to 5am when they are dimmed such that they are only one lighting class brighter than Enfield’s).

xv)         Officers in the Streetlighting Team have liaised closely with Enfield’s Community Safety team to obtain a better understanding of any relationship between lighting and crime. Key issues to consider are whether there has been a change in the level of night-time crime in Enfield since the installation of the new LED lighting and, if so, whether this has been prevalent in certain areas of the borough or in specific road types.

xvi)        There is no existing survey data on the fear of crime. Therefore, analysis data included in the report is provided using local crime and accessible Police data as well as the results from the Crime Survey of England and Wales.

xvii)       The Community Safety Unit works closely with the Police and other agencies to review crime levels and trends and this work is ongoing.

The following comments and questions were raised:

Q.   Councillor Anderson asked what approval was given to dim the lights.

A.   Officers would check whether this had been a Cabinet or Council decision and feedback to Members accordingly.

Action: Stephen Skinner, Head of Highway Services

*Post meeting response*

Approval was given to dim the previous ‘SON’ type lights via a Cabinet Report approved on 21^st March 2012. As described in the briefing paper, the new LED lights have been designed to lighting classes in accordance with the current British Standard and they are at least as bright as the levels provided by the SON lights

Q.        Councillor Georgiou asked when the street lights come on and off.

A.        The lights are set to come on 20 minutes after sunset and 20 minutes before sunrise. This aligns with the ‘trimming’ approved in the above Cabinet report whereby the lights were set to be switched on 6.5 minutes after sunset and 6.5 minutes before sunrise. Because the older SON lamps took a period of time to ‘power up and down’, it was estimated that the old 6.5 minutes equates to 20 minutes with the new LED luminaires, which do not have the same time delay. Officers will liaise further with Haringey to establish switch on and off times of Haringey’s lights and review whether Enfield and Haringey can be aligned.

Action: Stephen Skinner, Head of Highway Services

Q.        Councillor Georgiou referred to a resident in Bowes Ward who had provided a video and lighting survey and asked whether he was quoting the same specification as the Council.

A.        The London Borough of Enfield (LBE) designers used “BS5489- Design of Road Lighting. Lighting of roads and public amenity areas- Code of Practice”. Officers believe that the resident was referring to the same British Standard. However, as explained in the meeting the resident had quoted lighting levels that he measured in Lumens, whereas the lighting classes specified in the British Standard (BS) are specified in lux, which is what LBE designers have used.

Q.        Councillor Georgiou commented on the fact that there had been more complaints regarding lighting levels from Upper Edmonton and Bowes Wards and questioned why this was the case?

A.        Once possible explanation for this was because of the close proximity geographically of these particular wards to Haringey therefore it was easier for residents to make a direct comparison.

Q.        Councillor Yusef asked if there was possibly an argument for different levels of lighting along different parts of the same road as often crimes were committed in darker areas of streets where the lighting was not so good due to large trees/vegetation etc.

A.        This was possible but there would still need to be some consistency along the whole road for the overall level of illumination. If however crimes are being reported to the Police this will link up with Enfield’s Community Safety Team and if certain areas are becoming ‘hot spots’ and the levels/scale of crime is causing the Police issues then this is something that the Council would need to respond to by ensuring that lighting is sufficient.

Q.        Councillor Anderson asked to see some costings on increasing the lighting levels in the borough by one or two lighting classes.

A.        Officers would look into this and provide costings accordingly.

            Action: Stephen Skinner, Head of Highway Services/John Grimes, Group Engineer, Highway Maintenance

*Post meeting response*

            As described in the report, the majority of the luminaires in residential roads are operating at between 80-90% power consumption. Whilst there is a capacity to turn these up to 100%, the increase in the level of light would be less than a whole lighting class. In order to achieve an increase of either 1 or 2 lighting classes, we would need to replace all the luminaires with new brighter units. The cost would be similar to the whole LED installation programme that is almost complete, at a cost of £6.375m for the whole borough.

Q.        Councillor Stephanos enquired about the lighting in the Ivy Road footpath/open space area as the area was very poorly lit  and he had received an excessive amount of emails, particularly from young women who regularly utilised the night economy and transport system in this area and were concerned as they felt unsafe when walking home.

A.        John Grimes agreed to look into this matter and provide a direct response to Councillor Stephanos.

            Action: John Grimes, Group Engineer, Highway Maintenance.

*Post meeting response provided directly to Councillor Stephanos*

            The pathway/access road that runs through the allotments here is not an adopted highway or a defined public right of way. There are many paths through park land and other public realm areas that are of a similar nature to this one and under the terms of the street lighting PFI there is not a requirement to introduce lighting to such areas. Unfortunately, at this time we are unable to install new lighting here.

Councillor Brett commented that the perception of crime is certainly part of the bigger problem. She had also received extensive correspondence from women in her ward expressing how unsafe they felt when walking the streets at night. She added that there appears to be a conflict on many levels as if the Local Authority (LA) want to support the climate level agenda and encourage people to walk, we need to ensure that residents feel safe. She also added that there are areas of large vegetation overgrowth along the North Circular Road in Bowes Ward. Therefore, although the lighting might be good and compliant with British Standards, this was counteracted by the overhanging trees etc.

Officers acknowledged this point and agreed that if vegetation and trees were not maintained and pruned regularly, they did cause dark areas in certain streets. These comments would be fed back accordingly to the appropriate council teams.

Doug Wilkinson, Director of Environment and Operational Services concluded by thanking Members for their feedback and comments which had come at a perfect time as the Lighting Replacement Programme nears its end and therefore it is now about constant improvement and constant refining.

The Chair thanked Officers for their informative report which had resulted in some very interesting discussions and some good anecdotal commentary.

It was agreed that following this meeting the Panel would come forward with some recommendations around Street Lighting and these would be fed back to Officers accordingly.

Action: Crime Scrutiny Panel Members