County Councillors Valerie Metcalfe (Buckhurst Hill & Loughton South) and John Knapman (Chigwell & Loughton Broadway) are delighted to announce that the Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Highways, Rodney Bass, has now officially agreed to change the timings of the Part Night Lighting in local areas where there are underground stations.  Currently most street lights are being turned off from 12 midnight to 5am, but under the new arrangements this will now be one hour later at 1am-6am to take greater account of the times of late night trains.

Valerie says “Although I know this will not address many of the concerns and issues which have been raised with me, I do feel that it will go some way to allay people’s fears of walking home in the dark after midnight. We am grateful for all the support from our local district and parish councillors in our campaign to make this happen. We are now pressing to see how soon we can get this change implemented.

If residents know of any hotspots where the police would support continuous lighting, we will continue to try to get those areas lit all night on the grounds given in the exemption criteria, such as around transport interchanges etc.”