Independent election candidate, Angus MacNeil, is calling on the comhairle to think again and look for compromise on the policy to switch off street lights in most areas of the islands at 10pm every night.
Angus MacNeil said: “Firstly we’ve got to ask what lights are for if we are turning them off at night. The Comhairle have decreed that the rural areas are outwith Stornoway and marine areas.
“Very obviously Stornoway needs lights but there’s a whole host of activities going on in Tarbert, Lochmaddy, Balivanich, Daliburgh, Castlebay and Northbay and other places where people congregate at night be that at hotels or restaurants where people are expected to move about.
“Turning the lights off in these built-up areas sends the wrong signal from our islands.
It looks as if we are closed for business especially now with the advance of LED
lights that have made lighting considerably cheaper. We really must wonder why you
would switch off lights at night, particularly at weekends. The very purpose surely
of the lights is to be turned on at night at a time when people are active.
“This could have a knock-on effect for businesses undoubtedly as people could feel
that the place is closed down.”
He urged the comhairle to “think again and stretch this at the very least at weekends and at Christmas and New Year to 1am in the morning.”
"That the policy will be rolled out for a 10pm switch off in June and July for Lewis and Harris when the sunset is at 10pm or long after is perplexing. Then as the nights get darker we start to then switch off in other islands.
"Some lights could be switched off. For instance there is one at my gate at home which isn't as important as the ones in the 'social centres' of our islands."
MacNeil questions lights-
27 June 2024