From David Barlow.
IT has been a delight to see the improvements evolving to the west of the tunnel entrance – first the elegant extension to the Royal Yacht Hotel, then the removal of bus shelters and the encouraging progress with paving and planting.

That is, until recently. A vast pylon has now been introduced to support four enormous floodlights which will, no doubt, turn night into day and add to the overillumination of the whole harbour area.

These days there are so many subtle and attractive ways of lighting public spaces – adequate for the police too – and one can only assume that the street lighting being introduced is the result of an engineering calculation rather than creative thinking. Not only will the pylon be a visual obstruction, it will also be uncomfortable at night for hotel visitors and local residents.

We already have overkill lighting on the Waterfront, along Victoria Avenue and at the Airport. The brightness in these places is dazzling, and, to make matters worse, the fittings appear to be left on at full power from dusk until dawn.

Perhaps some enterprising politician will obtain an analysis of the States’ electricity bill – does anyone ever query these matters? – and find out how much we are paying each year for this contaminating glare. Perhaps the Auditor General, Mr Swinson, is approaching ‘savings’ from a different point of view?

Freiburg, on the Rhine, is a considerable city with thousands of students, no doubt fairly unruly, yet it manages to light its streets and public spaces using illumination levels about one third as intense as those used in Jersey. But the Germans are more careful with their money – more imaginative with their design, too.
Perhaps the Constable of St Helier will be able to investigate?
Tumbleside,
Mont à la Brune,
St Brelade.