英国城镇上演“午夜熄灯” 不搞“照明工程”

　　Almost three quarters of councils have already reduced street lighting in their area, or are considering doing so。

　　The blackouts

　　are being rolled across thousands of streets in rural areas, suburbs and city centers in almost every county in the UK, despite concerns from residents and police that the moves will lead to an increase in traffic accidents and crime。

　　In total, 98 out of 133 local authorities who responded to a survey said were scaling back street lighting, or were looking into doing so。

　　Every county council which took part in the survey said they were reducing lighting or planning to do so, as did local authorities in several major cities, including Cardiff, Sheffield, Edinburgh and parts of London。

　　Conversely, those that said they had no plans to change were mostly small councils, many of which have responsibility only for lighting in off-road areas, such as parks, car parks and footpaths。

　　The schemes to reduce street lighting involve either switching some off altogether or installing new lamps are automatically dimmed or turned off during "quiet" periods, late at night. In some schemes, technology is being installed which will allow CCTV operators monitoring streets to dim or brighten lights according to the need。

　　Councils say the moves help cut energy bills and meet climate change targets. Britain's 7.5 million street lamps cost an estimated ￡500 million a year to run。

　　One of the biggest schemes under way is in Norfolk, where 3,300 streets in Norwich as well as rural parts of the county are being be converted to "part-night lighting", meaning their lights will go off from midnight until 5am。

　　In addition, more than 5,000 "dimmable" lights will be installed on main traffic routes, which will give off a third less light from 8pm until 5am。

　　The Tory-run council say it will save ￡167,000 a year, but Steven Altman, a Green Party councillor in Norwich, criticised the scheme。

　　He said: "The environmental and economic benefits have been overstated. There is a lot of opposition from residents who are concerned about the impact it will have on crime."

　　英国近3/4的市政部门已经或正考虑削减当地的路灯照明。

　　“午夜熄灯法”正在全英几乎每个郡的农村、郊区和市中心的街道全面铺开，尽管一些居民和警察担心这会增加交通事故和犯罪数量。

　　在参与调查的133个地方政府中，有98个表示正减少灯光照明，或正打算这样做。

　　而参与调查的所有郡议会，以及几个大城市的地方政府都表示正减少照明，或有此打算，其中包括加的夫、谢菲尔德、爱丁堡、以及伦敦的部分地区。

　　相反，无此打算的大多是小型议会，其中许多只负责道路以外区域的照明，如公园、停车场、和人行道。

　　减少路灯照明的方案既包括完全关闭一些照明，还包括安装能在深夜自动变暗或关闭的新照明。在一些方案中，还可以通过新技术的设置，使闭路监控操作员可以根据需要将路灯变暗或点亮。

　　英国议会称，“午夜熄灯”不仅能节省电费，还可以节能减排。英国750万盏路灯每年大概花费5亿英镑。

　　目前诺福克郡正在实行最大的方案之一，诺威奇的3300条街道和农村地区将采取“午夜熄灯”，从午夜至凌晨5点关闭照明系统。

　　此外，主要交通线路将安装五千多盏“调光”灯，从晚上8点到凌晨5点，照明强度减少1/3。

　　英国保守党议会称，此举每年可节省16.7万英镑，但诺威奇绿党议员史蒂文·奥特曼批评了这一方案。

　　他说：“这一方案的环保和经济效益被夸大了。很多居民担心这种做法会使犯罪增多，表示反对。”