Some of the residents of Ventnor have noticed that all the street lights in the town have been on day and night during this week.
News OnTheWight has been finding out why this is – not only so Ventnorians have the puzzle solved, but so if it happens in other Isle of Wight towns and villages, people will know why.
Central controls
When LED street lights were installed across the Island at the start of the Highways PFI, one of the benefits cited was that they would all be individually controllable by a control centre in Newport.
To control them, messages are sent along the power cable telling the street lamps to be turned on and off.
Breakdown in communication
What’s happened in Ventnor this week is that the ability to send and receive those messages has become faulty – the communication has broken – so they cannot be controlled.
To ensure towns and villages are not left in darkness, if the street lamps lose touch with the control centre in Newport, the lights switch themselves on – both during the day as well as the night. The logic being, if the system fails, it’s better to have lights on during the day rather than have the streets dark at night.
Island Roads tell News OnTheWight that they have contractors onsite and are in the process of fixing it, hoping to complete this soon.
