Lights on night and day but it’s ok... they’re eco-friendly

Published: 18 June, 2010

• I HAD cause to ask the tenant liaison officer for Apollo, a subcontracting construction company working on behalf of Homes for Islington (HfI), why it was leaving the many lights on the scaffolding at my communal property turned on for 24 hours.

The response was: it’s ok they are eco-bulbs. I pointed out that even eco-bulbs left on unnecessarily for 24 hours cause harm to the environment, and the fact is they are not needed during the day.

But I was told that leaving them on was “easier than fitting a switch, I suppose”. What is more offensive than that comment is the fact that Apollo seems to assume that because this is a council estate nobody cares about environmental or conservation matters. When I pressed the fact that I thought the lights should be off during the day I received the following email from the tenant liaison officer: “The lights on the scaffold are of the eco-friendly type and we think it not necessary to keep turning them off with a timer.

 “The wiring for the lights is plugged into the communal mains but is metered and charged to Apollo and not to residences.” The first point is beyond belief. The second point a matter of investigation, because when I switched off my mains electrical point prior to raising the cost issue the meter continued turning. Since raising the issue it has stopped.

I have asked HfI to carry out an investigation into this matter.

GORDON MCINTOSH
Britannia Row, N1