Community Issues

Lights to Stay

Unless You Have Your Say

Previous story: Park Lights - Round 2

Residents of villages within Sai Kung Country Park met with the Highways Department (HyD) 29 March and listened as they provided their justification for erecting and turning on lights along uninhabited sections of Pak Tam Road. 

The HyD presentation was in four parts:

1. Initial requests received since 1998 to turn the lights on (SK North Rural Committee and SK Rural Committee via their respective District Offices) and one hiker (2003)
2. Correspondence from many village representatives since it was learned that some residents were not pleased with the erection of the lights (Spring 2006)
3. Justification for the need for the lights
4. Lighting options

Statistics were provided in justification for the lights including some less than startling figures:

• The number of vehicles along Pak Tam Road during evening hours ranges from 1 to 11
• 3 traffic accidents (non-fatal) have occurred during evening hours along Pak Tam Road in the past 7 years
• There have been 13 incidents of crime during evening hours “in the vicinity of Pak Tam Road” in the past 7 years

The four lighting options were obviously a means to find a compromise between the two points of view.  One option recommended that the original scheme be put in place but that the lights be replaced and reduced to 100w lamps.  The other three options included various means of reducing the wattage and turning off some sections of the road at timed intervals in order to reduce the cost and light pollution.  There was no option to maintain the status quo (lights at village entrances and nothing more).  

Residents often interrupted the presenter and questioned the validity of the arguments. In a few instances the Department was found to have misrepresented the truth. The after-dark accident statistics included the November fatality of a motorcyclist and who, by police records, was killed at 5:00pm. The Department stated that they received their information from the press and did not query Police Department records. Another involves the Department’s statement to the first meeting of concerned residents in May 2006 that Kadoorie Farms had informed them that the lights would cause no danger to wildlife in the area. In a letter 10 days prior to the most recent meeting, Gary Ades, Head of the Fauna Conservation Department at Kadoorie Farms, clarified their earlier letter and suggested: “As little is known about the impact of countryside street lighting on wildlife, it is suggested that the Highways Department could consider conducting a study to investigate this issue and recommend relevant mitigations if there are any potential impacts. This study could help to minimize the impact on wildlife through sensitive management of street lighting requirements.”

Park resident, Paul Hodgson, asked a City University engineering professor for information on international opinion on street lights within rural areas and found that much of the literature (from the USA, UK and Norway) states that increased lighting in rural areas does not improve road safety at night and can actually make roads less safe than driving on full beam along an unlit road, and only gives the perception of making footpaths safer.  Highways Department admitted that their expertise is in urban areas, not rural. 

Residents suggested that the representatives drive with them into the park that evening to see the difference in visibility of driving with high beams along an unlit road versus driving in the lighted areas of the road.   The department representatives, admitting that they had not done such a test, declined.

The suggestion from another resident that the whole project was a result of a flawed system of village representation, calling upon the representatives of the District Offices (DC) to conduct a proper survey of actual village residents to determine who was actually in favour of the lights, fell upon deaf ears.  Not one of the DC representatives commented on the request. 

Attendees left the meeting feeling that not only did the HyD seem to be justifying a job already tendered (as a result of requests by a few N.T. villagers), but that they were unable to accept that the job was costly (to the environment and to the tax payer) and completely unnecessary.

If you walk or hike in the Country Park and enjoy the fact that you can look at the stars, watch the fauna of the evening without lights to impede your (and their) vision – please contact the following and tell them your views.