Hayton: ‘Pedestrian-only’ lights set to be switched on in East Yorkshire village

Lillian Greenwood, who is Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for the Future of Roads at the Department for Transport, praised the scheme after receiving a guided tour of one of the sites of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council street lights trial in Hayton, near Pocklington.

The lights, which look like regular street lamps only smaller, have been installed over footpaths in the village to replace the nearby lights that run along the main road. They are set to be switched on later this month.

The council was awarded £3.3m to study more environmentally friendly ways of lighting main roads in the future, as it is expected that more efficient headlights on modern cars will make some existing road lighting redundant.

Earlier this month, street lights were switched off along two stretches of main road for a year-long trial period – the A164 from the Humber Bridge to Willerby and from Cottingham to Skidby, and the A1079 from Dunswell Roundabout to Ennerdale Bridge, some of which has been replaced by modern pedestrian-only lighting.

The council is also using AI and thermal imaging camera technology in a world first to monitor the behaviour of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians during the trial.

Ms Greenwood visited the test site to see how the scheme will work, and was given a presentation by council officers and local councillors involved in the trial.

Karl Rourke, the council’s service manager for street lighting, who is leading the project, said the ministerial visit is crucial in pushing the message that lighting can be done in a different way while maintaining driver safety.

He added: “We’re extremely pleased to have received a visit from the transport minister and be able to highlight our ground-breaking project and show what we aim to achieve.”

Some of the other energy efficient lighting techniques that the council is working with include highly reflective white lines, solar powered illuminated road studs, and reflective signs, all of which are designed to give drivers all the visual indications they need to navigate the road without the need for traditional overhead lighting.

The project is part of ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK, a three-year, UK-wide £30 million programme funded by the Department for Transport that aims to make the local highway network greener. East Riding Council is leading a group of nine other authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on the Live Labs 2 street lighting project.

If the trial proves successful, it could lead to more than a million street lights being switched off in out-of-town areas across the country, saving tonnes of carbon and millions of pounds of public money.