Rheine. On Tuesday this week, the Council decided by a large majority to extend the shutdown of the lanterns by one hour. With the decision should and can be successfully taken into account the energy shortage. Specifically, it was decided to extend the previous night shutdown (01:00 to 03:30) by one hour (01:00 to 04:30).
This means that the following regulations currently apply: In the nights from Friday to Saturday, from Saturday to Sunday and in the nights before public holidays and in the period from Thursday before Rose Monday to Ash Wednesday, there is no restriction of street lighting. On the other nights, street lighting will be turned off altogether from 01:00 to 4:30 (except for crosswalks). After consultation with the police, there have been no anomalies in the past with the currently applicable night shut-off. An extension of the night shut-off by 1 hour until 04:30 is also seen as uncritical from the police point of view. A possible bringing forward of the shutdown to 00:00 hrs, for example, is judged differently. During this time, many people (pedestrians, cyclists and car traffic) are still on the move in the city area. Other alternatives, for example switching off every second light, were also examined. They were rejected because of the great technical effort and high costs involved.
The motion originally submitted by the CDU and FDP groups on September 22, 2022 was referred to the Construction and Mobility Committee at the meeting of the Main and Finance Committee on November 22, 2022 due to existing responsibilities. However, consultation and thus also implementation would have been possible on February 2, 2023 at the earliest. Therefore, at the request of the Bündnis90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, the Council took the decision to itself in its meeting on Tuesday and decided on immediate implementation. Due to the current tight supply situation and the unforeseeable development of the energy supply, it was considered sensible to make the decision at the earliest possible date.
The new scheme will result in significant additional savings: 119,000 kWh of electricity, 135 tons of CO2 and €66,000. Positive effects also result for species protection; nocturnal animal species can thus be active in their habitats undisturbed in the dark. Illustration WordPress blog