Let There Be Darkness

Some more local guff, people hold on...be strong! The so-called Prestbury environmental improvement scheme is finally taking shape. The new street lighting system is now in full operation, as of tonight, and for the first time in hundreds of years the village is just about saturated in candle flame coloured high pressure sodium light. The new lanterns are very attractive and seem to have been intelligently designed to limit light pollution so the general effect of the lighting is not quite as brash as some had feared. However, I still feel that it does, never the less, further suburbanise the immediate surroundings and undermine a sense of historic charm, as well as that ethereal quality of civilised quiescence that the last vestiges of rural darkness brought. Instead I feel that all of this extra sodium light seems to create the sort of environment which, ironically, is fundamentally more supportive to marauding exhibitionistic yobs, graffiti, litter, increased traffic, and environmental stress and all of those other detestable urban attributes. Phase two of the scheme gets under way next year; this includes construction and implementation of the necessary road structures for the traffic-calming scheme. I just hope it will not result in an ugly mess of attention grabbing highway features to gladden the anti whimsical heart of any clipboard brandishing health and safety official. One thing is for sure, Prestbury's days as a semi rural settlement with a unique ambience that not so long ago could evoke nostalgia for the relatively recent past at least, have virtually disappeared. I am going to miss a certain moonlight flood effect in my bedroom. However, I will probably get used to it, the accentuation of the trees across the road is rather pleasing at least.