An open question at the end of the questionnaire invited ‘other comments about your street or neighbourhood after dark’. These were coded into broad themes. More respondents from part-night lighting streets made comments, made negative comments about reduction (though many in the ‘no reduction’ group also thought theirs had gone off/did not have any anyway), mentioned negative effects and made negative comments about their neighbourhoods. More in streets with no intervention made negative comments about the amount of street lighting at night. Around half of all respondents made at least one comment; some made more than one comment.
TABLE 13
Household survey text responses
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| Topic | PNL (N = 250), n | No reduction in street lighting (N = 233), n |
|---|
| Factual information only |
| On street light provision | 24 | 24 |
| On home improvements | 12 | 19 |
| On local environment/services | 2 | 3 |
| Other | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 40 | 47 |
| Negative opinions of street lighting reduction |
| General/want more lights | 13 | 10 |
| Increase crime/danger/decrease in security | 14 | 5 |
| Change in habits | 1 | 1 |
| Problem for shift workers | 1 | 2 |
| Can’t see house number | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 30 | 18 |
| Positive opinions of street lighting reduction |
| Generally a good thing | 5 | 4 |
| No change in crime | 1 | 2 |
| Better sleep | 1 | 0 |
| See stars | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 9 | 6 |
| Experienced negative effects of reduced street lighting |
| Crime | 3 | 0 |
| Reduced mobility | 2 | 0 |
| RTI | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 6 | 0 |
| Negative opinions of street light at night |
| Affects sleep | 1 | 0 |
| Too much/should switch off | 0 | 7 |
| Like no lights | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 1 | 9 |
| Seeing the night sky |
| Too much light to see | 2 | 0 |
| Can see stars | 5 | 6 |
| Don’t care about seeing stars | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 9 | 6 |
| Views of local authority/government |
| Doing it to save money (negative) | 6 | 0 |
| Saving money (positive) | 1 | 0 |
| Good for environment | 1 | 0 |
| The local authority don’t care/are incompetent | 1 | 6 |
| Total | 9 | |
| General views on neighbourhood |
| Negative | 6 | 0 |
| Positive | 6 | 8 |
| Mixed | 4 | 2 |
| Total | 16 | 10 |
| Opinions on neighbours’ lighting |
| Negative (light pollution, sleep) | 2 | 2 |
| Positive (security) | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 2 | 4 |
| Other comments on street lighting |
| Doesn’t concern us | 1 | 1 |
| Suggestions of alternatives to current provision | 2 | 4 |
| Mixed views of street lighting | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 3 | 5 |
| Other comments: why not applicable |
| Too old/disabled to go out anyway | 3 | |
| Tenant – no opinion | 1 | |
| Recently arrived/other | 2 | |
| Total | 6 | |
| Total number of comments | 131 | 119 |
PNL, part-night lighting; RTI, road traffic injury.
