Ashford Borough Council (ABC) has carried out a study on the borough’s street lights to determine which of these are ‘safety critical’, with a view to removing those that are not in that category. The motivation behind this action is both cost saving and also environmental.

Both Brabourne and Smeeth Parish Councils have been informed that although most will remain, a number of our street lights are considered not to make our parishes safer and as a result ABC will no longer operate and maintain them.

Please see below the map and a list where each of these street lights are in Smeeth.

In some cases, if you and the Parish Council feel it would be safer if the streetlights were kept, we will be given the opportunity to ‘adopt’ any of these street lights – which means that the Parish Council will be required to pay their running and maintenance costs, and potentially pay for the older ones to be replaced when they reach the end of their life.

The Parish Council would like to hear from you, our local residents, whether the removal of any of the street lights identified by ABC causes you concern and if so, why. There is then the opportunity to adopt none, some or all of the street lights. We can then take your opinions into consideration when making a decision.

The Council appreciates that there may be different views – some residents may be keen for them to be removed to prevent light coming in to their homes at night, others may prefer to keep the local areas lit when it is dark.

Your comments will have a direct impact on any decision the Parish Council makes, and so please do let your Council know your views. Please provide these to the email addresses below by latest 02 November 2021.

clerk@smeethpc.org.uk

In your reply please note the number of the street lamp you are commenting on, so we can pull together responses for each one.