STOPPING THE ROT- A VALUABLE DEBATE

摘要

Despite the chronic nature of the crisis in public lighting, there have been few major public debates on the issue in recent years. So December's joint ILE/Surveyor conference, 'Alight Here', at the Institution of Civil Engineers, was a welcome focus for beginning the fight-back. More than 200 delegates witnessed a full day of presentations on the current state of our lighting stock, the legal implications, monitoring and prevention techniques and possible funding options - with plenty of feedback from the floor. In the keynote address, Staffordshire county surveyor, Chris Bulman, pinpointed the crude anomalies - road length increases of 0.5% a year, an annual increase in lighting units of 1.3% and a 29% growth in traffic in the last 10 years, yet spending on carriageway lighting has halved in the last three years. Immediate unit replacement needs are estimated at £543 million, while current annual expenditure is a mere £44 million.