I fought for our street lighting some time ago. But as of April 1, residential lighting will be switched off from midnight to 5am, saving the county council around £150,000 per year.
This would not include the night of December 24 into December 25 or the night of December 31 into January 1, when lights would remain on all night.
This means that Hampshire County Council is turning off street lights for an extra two hours. They are cutting costs because of their enormous financial black hole, but it would seem that the safety of our residents has gone out the window.
It will be pitch dark when ambulances are called out to people in the middle of the night to take them to the hospital, and our police force is trying to keep our streets safe and crime-free. People are going to and from work or coming back from an evening out, but our residential areas will be in complete darkness. I was very upset to read about it on Sunday morning.
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Despite a £197m debt, I then read about a six-figure salary being paid to 50 employees at Hampshire County Council. I am upset with these six-figure salaries while the rest of us are struggling. I fully appreciate that some employees have high-powered jobs, but I have not seen a cut in these people's wages to help with the deficit.
This does not seem to make sense, and I will be fighting for our residents' rights regarding the lighting situation. We should not have this service cut back.
I question why we have put everything up on April 1 for all the utilities and different services. I can understand the rent and council tax, but surely it would help if the other services we have, i.e., electric, gas, phone, and television licence, could be staggered.
It's not all bad news for Andover residents. We will be having a bus go to Winchester, which will be free from Sunday, April 20, until May 26, including the bank holidays between these two dates.
I do find this helpful for people visiting people in hospitals who don’t have transport. Services 4 and 76 will also be changed to improve punctuality.
However, I am still disappointed that some of our buses were withdrawn, which has affected our elderly and disabled residents.
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