Lights plan

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), July 31, 2006

A scheme to switch street lights off at night has been turned down.

Tories in North Tyneside said the plan would involve automated street lighting which would only come on if there was a car or pedestrian in the street.

Coun Ed Hodson, of St Mary's Ward, who came up with the idea, said: "We pour electric lights on to roads when there isn't anything or anyone going along them and a lot of street lighting is wasteful.

"When you go out of the room in your house you turn the lights off and the motivation behind this idea was my concern over the amount of carbon dioxide we are pouring into the atmosphere.

"I'm sure it's possible to have some sort of automated device so the lights come on when they're needed."