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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 9:08 am 
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Yet again, more fantastic posts David. Now as ECC is starting Phase 4 (the last part of their LED upgrade scheme), and Essex will be pretty much LED by 2024, I'm thinking where in the UK will SOX still be a stronghold in, I think Stockport still is SOX but not for long.

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PostPosted: Sat Jul 17, 2021 2:42 pm 
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Thank you SpeedStar! We are lucky that we have about three years left to enjoy SOX in Essex. I would be surprised if there will be any SOX strongholds left in the UK three years from now, which is when phase 4 of Essex County Council's street light LED replacement programme is expected to conclude. There may be a council somewhere in the land with not two pennies to rub together and unlikely to embark on an LED replacement programme anytime soon. Here in Essex, only the borough, district and parish councils' own MBF/U, SOX and SON street lighting, and Highways England's own SOX and SON street lighting could still be extant by then, but even that is looking unlikely. Here's an example of some of Highways England's SOX lighting at junction 25 of the A12 that still exists to this day:
In February 2019, David wrote:
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The Prince of Wales roundabout in Mark’s Tey on the outskirts of Colchester is a step back to the 1970s. To this day, it is exclusively lit with 135W SOX lanterns - Eleco GR150s, Philips MA50s, a Thorn Alpha Four and a Thorn Alpha Six.

The Alpha Six is on the single column on the traffic island in the foreground of this photograph taken on Friday night (15th February 2019).

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Another photograph of the exclusively SOX-lit Prince of Wales roundabout in Mark’s Tey taken on Friday night. The 1980s / 1990s trend of boosting lighting levels at important junctions by fitting SON lanterns never happened here!

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Adjoining the Prince of Wales roundabout is a short stretch of dual carriageway which carries the A120 over the A12. This photograph was also taken on Friday night.

With the exception of a traffic light-controlled pedestrian crossing, this dual carriageway is also lit with 135W SOX lanterns. Many of the lanterns were renewed with new SOX lanterns in January 2012, although the sleeved concrete columns mounted on the bridge parapets were not tackled.

The A12 Stanway Bypass to the west of Colchester was opened in 1971. Junction 25 of the A12 - the terminus of the bypass - was remodelled to accommodate the new bypass, meaning these concrete columns have now reached their 50th birthday. The last significantly large and unspoilt SOX installation in the Colchester area could be reaching the end of its life quite soon.

Essex County Council has now published the order in which Phase 4 of their street light replacement by LEDs programme will be executed on their website. It's split into six stages and is estimated to take three years to complete. My area of Essex (covered by Colchester Borough Council and Tendring District Council) is in stage two. Splitting the table into its simplest form of six months per stage would suggest work could start in my area in the winter of this year and end in late-spring 2022. But the actual replacement schedule could be rather different. For example, the Colchester Borough Council area has a population three times greater than Maldon District Council's area, so we would ordinarily expect the replacement programme to take around three times longer to complete in Colchester than in Maldon.

Stage one, comprising of Basildon and Chelmsford's council areas - have a combined population of around 366,000 people between them, which represents just under a quarter of the Essex County Council area. That would suggest it could take around 9 months to complete these two council areas, taking the works into January 2022.

Stage two, comprising of Colchester and Tendring's council areas, have a combined population of around 341,000 people between them, which represents about 23% of the Essex County Council area. That would suggest it could take about eight months to complete these two council areas, from perhaps February 2022 to perhaps September 2022.

This, of course, assumes that all the council areas have a similar density of residential street lighting and that the proportion of lanterns left to convert to LED against the total quantity of lanterns is also similar in each council area, which is unlikely to be the case of course, but population by council area could provide a rough guide to the upcoming works.

By my back-of-a-cigarette-packet calculations, stage one (25% of the Essex County Council area by population) could last around nine months, stage two (23%) around eight months, stage three (19%) around seven months and stages four, five and six (12%, 11% and 10% respectively) around four months each.

Although the above dates for individual areas are my own speculation, one thing is for sure - in three years from now / by mid-2024, there will be very little MBF, SOX or SON street lighting left in the county.

Small-wattage SOX lanterns still dominate residential streets in Essex. It was the lighting of choice for Essex County Council since the time that residential street lighting came under its control in 1974 all the way up to the mid-2000s, and many borough and district councils were installing SOX before the 1970s energy crisis. Accordingly, there is a legacy of almost 50 years of SOX lighting in some areas (else 20 years of MBF/U and 30 years of SOX, like in Clacton-on-Sea) followed by 15 years of SON to be replaced with LED.

The only exception that I know of to the wholesale adoption of SOX street lighting across Essex in 1974 was "upmarket" Frinton-on-Sea, where Essex County Council chose to continue installing MBF/U lighting until the MBF/U option was removed from the Phosco P111 lantern, upon when the council switched to SON.

In March 2016, David wrote:
Frinton-on-Sea has always sat a little uneasily among its near-neighbours of Jaywick, Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze. With its wide tree-lined avenues and large detached houses, it was purposely-built to attract the upper-middle classes - to Essex no less - and many covenants were created to protect the town's way of life accordingly. The absence of fast food joints, cafes and kiosks along the seafront keeps the town litter-free. Buses were banned from passing over the level crossing gates until the 1980s, fish and chips didn't arrive in the town until 1992 (after a bitter planning battle), and the town didn't get its first pub until 2000 (after another bitter planning battle).

Even today the town still has a 1950s feel to it, and that trend has been reflected in its street lighting. When Essex County Council moved away from MBF/U in the 1970s and SOX casual replacements started appearing in mercury-lit streets for the first time, the most upmarket area of Frinton - the area inside the sorely-missed level crossing gates - escaped such an indignity, and the Council were still installing new MBF/U Phosco P111s in the town (to match the town's existing street lighting) up until Phosco removed the MBF/U option from the P111 a few years ago.

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A mile of mercury. Here is The Esplanade, the road that runs along Frinton sea front, photographed in December 1997. Despite Essex County Council moving away from MBF/U in the 1970s, there are no non-MBF/U casual replacements to be seen here.

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The same scene photographed eighteen years later in September 2015. The advancing years of the original Concrete Utilities "Edinburgh" columns has coincided with the removal of the MBF/U option from the Phosco P111, with inevitable consequences.

Last month, an opportunity arose to re-visit Frinton-on-Sea in the nighttime to see how north east Essex's only mercury-lit town was doing six years after the photographs in my March 2016 post were taken. LED casual replacements didn't start appearing in my corner of Essex until late-2016, so Frinton at this time was lit with historic and modern MBF/U Phosco P111s and latterly the SON Phosco P111s after Phosco removed the lantern's MBF/U option. The town has now embraced white light again, with depletion of MBF/U and SON Phosco P111s in favour of LED Phosco P111s now very evident.

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The same view as the 1997 and 2015 photographs before, re-photographed in June 2021.

Back in 2015, around 20 of the 55 lanterns along the whole of The Esplanade (the 1 1/4-mile long road that runs along Frinton sea front) were SON casual replacements, representing around 36% of the total. The rest (circa. 64%) were MBF/U. Now there are just four SON Phosco P111 lanterns left along the whole of the sea front, representing circa. 7% of the total, and just seven MBF/U P111s (circa. 13%) now remain. All the other lanterns - about 80% of the total - are now LED Phosco P111s.

By Essex standards, this is a remarkably quick turnover of lanterns in the space of six years and is a fast-paced representation of what is happening on many side roads in the county when lamps expire - instead of the lantern being re-lamped, the lantern is swapped over to an LED lantern.

Here are some more "then and now" photographs from Frinton sea front, photographed in 2015, 2016 and 2021:

In March 2016, David wrote:
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September 2015 - The Esplanade between Frinton Golf Club (at the southern end of the town) and Connaught Avenue (the main shopping street) showing new SON P111s interspersed with older MBF/U P111s.

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Approximately the same view as seen in the September 2015 photograph above, re-photographed in June 2021. The Esplanade between Frinton Golf Club and Connaught Avenue is now all-LED with the exception of one mercury lantern near the Golf Club.

In March 2016, David wrote:
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This was the first of two views of The Esplanade between the Crescent Gardens and Connaught Avenue taken in March 2016.

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The same view in June 2021.

In March 2016, David wrote:
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March 2016 - two views of The Esplanade between the Crescent Gardens and Connaught Avenue. Frinton would never entertain the idea of multicoloured seafront illuminations, but the current mix of MBF/U and SON lighting is a good try!

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The same view in June 2021. Just one SON lantern and three MBF/U lanterns remain along this stretch of the sea front. The third MBF/U lantern was on the right next to the camera.

In March 2016, David wrote:
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March 2016 - The Esplanade between the Crescent Gardens and the other end of the town. Once the far corner is turned, you are in Walton-on-the-Naze.!

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The same view in June 2021. Just three SON lanterns and three MBF/U lanterns remain along this stretch of the sea front.

If you step away from the sea front, the pace of change is a little slower.

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Second Avenue is a typical road within Frinton-on-Sea's conservation area. Photograph taken in June 2021.

A few years ago it was a mix of MBF/U P111s on Concrete Utilities "Byway X" columns and SON casual replacements on new aluminium or steel poles. Fast forward to today and many of the last remaining "Byway X" columns have now been replaced with new aluminium or steel poles, killing off many MBF/U lanterns in the process. But instead of SON casual replacements, the LED P111 is now the lantern of choice.

Believe it or not, but there is still one MBF/U P111 lantern in the above view of Second Avenue awaiting replacement. It is difficult to see as the SON and LED P111s are cut-off fittings with better optics whereas the MBF-U version of the lantern throws light in all directions with only the refractor offering some level of optical control. So although the 24W LED array and the 80W MBF/U lamp may give off a similar quantity of light (perhaps around 3,800 lumens each), the LED lantern is far more effective at delivering it to the road.

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Second Avenue and The Esplanade (sea front road), as photographed from the entrance of Frinton Golf Club. Photograph taken in June 2021.

This wideangle view of a side road and the sea front road show the different speeds of ongoing lighting replacement in Frinton-on-Sea, with the sea front road very much out in front with very little discharge lighting left to replace.

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A view of the Esplanade from the northern end of the town, taken in June 2021.

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As the clock strikes 1am (midnight on Sundays), virtually all residential street lighting in Essex switches off under the current part-night lighting regime. Photograph taken in June 2021.

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One final photograph of Frinton greensward, taken from the same location as the 1997, 2016 and 2021 photographs above, with all the residential street lighting in the town switched off. Photograph taken in June 2021.

The town's main shopping street - Connaught Avenue - is the only street that remains in light throughout the night.

So in quick conclusion, Essex's residential streets will all look very different at night in as little as three years from now, expect perhaps the older part of Frinton-on-Sea which tried very hard not to move away from white light in the first place.


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 11:31 pm 
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In July 2021, David wrote:
Essex County Council has now published the order in which Phase 4 of their street light replacement by LEDs programme will be executed on their website. It's split into six stages and is estimated to take three years to complete. My area of Essex (covered by Colchester Borough Council and Tendring District Council) is in stage two.

Stage one, comprising of Basildon and Chelmsford's council areas - have a combined population of around 366,000 people between them, which represents just under a quarter of the Essex County Council area. That would suggest it could take around 9 months to complete these two council areas, taking the works into January 2022.

Stage two, comprising of Colchester and Tendring's council areas, have a combined population of around 341,000 people between them, which represents about 23% of the Essex County Council area. That would suggest it could take about eight months to complete these two council areas, from perhaps February 2022 to perhaps September 2022.

Small-wattage SOX lanterns still dominate residential streets in Essex. It was the lighting of choice for Essex County Council since the time that residential street lighting came under its control in 1974 all the way up to the mid-2000s, and many borough and district councils were installing SOX before the 1970s energy crisis. Accordingly, there is a legacy of almost 50 years of SOX lighting in some areas (else 20 years of MBF/U and 30 years of SOX, like in Clacton-on-Sea) followed by 15 years of SON to be replaced with LED.

That prediction last July - that the Basildon and Chelmsford areas could see all their small-wattage street lighting replaced by LED by January 2022 and that the crews would move onto the Colchester and Tendring areas by February 2022 - has proven to be uncannily accurate. The Essex Highways Twitter feed reported on 28th January 2022 that the street lighting crews have now started work in the Colchester and Tendring areas.

The Twitter update includes photographs of the crews working in my current home town of Colchester, but our local street lighting enthusiast Nathan from Clacton-on-Sea has also conceded defeat in his battle to keep Clacton's street lights from being replaced. Dare I say it, but even at the age of 47 as I am now, I won't enjoy seeing the demise of the street lighting that delighted me as a kid back in the 1970s and 1980s. But I am incredibly grateful that I have had the good fortune to live in a county where it has been allowed to last this long.

Thankfully this UKASTLE thread provides a good historic record of what is about to be lost in the Colchester and Tendring areas. I will particularly miss the mercury GEC Z5641s and Z5671s that are about to disappear from the Tendring towns of Jaywick, Clacton-on-Sea, Great Clacton and Holland-on-Sea. These were installed by the Clacton Urban District Council before the council was merged into Tendring District Council and the control of street lighting was handed over to Essex County Council in 1974.

The Z5641s - installed here on Concrete Utilities "Utility Major" columns between the 1950s and the mid-1960s - have probably depleted to around one hundred in quantity as of early 2022. This is an astonishing achievement considering some of these lanterns may have been in nightly service for around 65 years. One of Clacton's Z5641s can be seen in the online Gazette article about Nathan linked to above.

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A selection of modern side road LED street lights from Lux Review magazine...

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...but none of those come close to the understated beauty of the GEC Z5641.
This photograph was taken in Clacton-on-Sea in December 2016.

The number of Z5671s in the Jaywick, Clacton-on-Sea, Great Clacton and Holland-on-Sea area - usually installed on GEC ZP3000 "plastopoles" between the mid-1960s and early 1970s - probably exceeds the number of Z5641s, despite a big cull of them in the mid-1980s to the early 1990s when the ZP3000 columns started shedding fibres. The reason I think the Z5671s now outnumber the Z5641s - despite this massive cull in numbers three decades ago - was that they were a popular casual replacement for failed Z5641s on the Utility Major columns, and they have simply depleted more slowly over the years thanks to their relative youth and the more robust aluminium casting at the base.

Those of you with long memories may perhaps recall that the introduction of the Z5671's robust aluminium casting at the base in lieu of the clear Diakon dish at the base of the Z5641 seemed like a retrograde step at the time, as the Z5671's aluminium casting cast a circular shadow directly underneath the column. A problem not suffered by the Z5641 of course!

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A day-burning GEC Z5671 photographed in Little Clacton in May 2016.

Over in Lower Kirby, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, we will see the demise of the equally historic mercury Phosco P111, which first arrived in Frinton around 60 years ago. These were installed by the Frinton and Walton Urban District Council until this council was also merged into Tendring District Council in 1974. They were installed on Concrete Utilities "Byway X" columns which have had their numbers culled quite significantly in recent years.

Unusually, Essex County Council (which took control of street lighting in 1974) continued to install the mercury Phosco P111 in Frinton-on-Sea and in parts of Lower Kirby and Walton-on-the-Naze until it was deleted from the Phosco catalogue, upon when high pressure sodium P111s started to appear.

This also meant that Essex County Council's favoured low pressure sodium complete passed Frinton by, and up until the recent cull of "Byway X" columns, the older part of Frinton (to the southern side of the railway line) was practically a mercury-lit town with some SON casual replacements.

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A Phosco P111 photographed in Frinton-on-Sea in April 2016.

Over in Colchester, mercury was far less popular and the last mercury street lights that I know of disappeared about 10 years ago. Low pressure sodium street lighting has dominated Colchester since the 1960s. There is still a rich and varied heritage of Davis, Eleco, GEC, Philips, Phosco, Siemens, Thorn and Urbis side road lanterns that are about to be culled. There are even a couple of Thorn Alpha Sixes still lighting Junction 25 of the A12, although their SLI tubes were removed and the lanterns converted to SOX nearly four decades ago. Mercifully, these are owned by National Highways, so they may outlive phase 4 of Essex County Council's LED replacement programme. Having said that, the lanterns and the (sleeved) concrete columns they are on are now over 50 years old, so they are also very much on borrowed time.

In July 2021, David wrote:
Stage two, comprising of Colchester and Tendring's council areas, have a combined population of around 341,000 people between them, which represents about 23% of the Essex County Council area. That would suggest it could take about eight months to complete these two council areas, from perhaps February 2022 to perhaps September 2022.

Revisiting my earlier prediction, it looks like all Essex County Council-controlled street lighting in the Colchester and Tendring districts will be LED by as early as September this year. It is certainly the end of an era.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 7:56 am 
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Knowing it was coming doesn't make it any more bearable.  :(

Thanks to your efforts David, there is a comprehensive pictorial record of the unique lighting which was once in Essex.


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 03, 2022 4:29 pm 
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At several locations along the major roads through Suffolk the county council are eager to remove all SOX lanterns by the end of this year. For example here  on the A14 between J58 and J59 there were a mix of what looks like ELECO GR100s, Philips MA50/MA60s and Thorn Alpha 5s (taken in June 2022), but only a few weeks ago all of these have been replaced with new led lights. This is the same case along most of the A14 up to Newmarket, and where just a few years ago there were many more of these but almost all are gone, spare for a few remaining Alpha fives at Junction 59. It is sad to see them all go, and many of these MA50/60s weren't more than 10-15 years old and still worked just fine. Isn't it counterproductive to remove all of the semi-new older lanterns whilst many still work and will work for several years to come?


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 04, 2022 8:38 am 
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I'm a bit surprised you don't know the answer to your own question.

SOX lamps are no longer made and haven't been for several years, so existing maintenance stocks are all but exhausted.

Secondly domestic electricity prices have tripled in 18 months. Prices for industrial users are not capped and have risen higher. So if the electricity bill for lighting was a hypothetical £1m per year, it's now going to be at least £3m a year. LED streetlighting uses around a third to a quarter of the power of a SOX fitting. Hence why getting rid of SOX (and SON) lighting is happening so quickly.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 04, 2022 9:29 am 
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This has nothing to do with Suffolk County Council. The A14 is owned and maintained by National Highways.

Suffolk County Council have been purging their SOX lighting for many years. I remember 20 years ago them doing mass lantern swaps of SOX for SON, to the point that SOX was almost only found on National Highways network, who have a reputation nationally for being "behind the curve" in upgrading street lighting compared to local authorities.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 04, 2022 9:38 pm 
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Essex county council stated rather boldly in 2021 that it was sure to be able to remove most of its discharge lighting by 2024. The program of work started I think in the Basildon region and moved it's way to Colchester. Colchester, starting work at the beginning of the year about February time and with an aim of completion by September.  Keeping in contact with an enthusiast, Essex have only changed by his approximations about 50%  of the residential lamps.  According to him, when the SOX or MBFU lamps burn out they are re-lamped which I find odd.

I find it strange as to why Essex haven't done as much of Colchester as it set out to do so. Interestingly,  the main road lamps running through Little Clacton were replaced on the 31st of October, so they are about doing work. Luckily, he's been able to save an MA50 from the crew to add to his collection.


Another thing I would like to know is why Essex are using 2 different companies to supply their residential lights. The Axia 3 which is the main one and the Kirium Eco are both being used. Surely, it's more cost effective to use one company (my preference is the Kirium Eco as its made in the uk and is designed better)?

Please can you enlighten me (pun) or state you guesses of why the above has happened? thanks.


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PostPosted: Sat Nov 05, 2022 9:37 am 
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I have moved your post to this topic. If you look back, Ukastle member David has over the years provided a very comprehensive commentary on the lighting scene in Colchester and other towns such as Clacton.

I very much doubt SOX or MBF lanterns are relamped as the lamps are obsolete and stocks unavailable, not to mention the energy costs - as mentioned in another post in this topic just yesterday. Old lamps from removed lanterns might be re-used, but David who keeps a very detailed eye on Colchester, has not previously seen this happening.

The use of 2 different lanterns is not really an issue, with continued worldwide supply chain problems and the rampant inflation, councils and their contractors will use the most cost effective solution that meets the specification.


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PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2023 1:18 pm 
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In November 2022, Chezo wrote:
Interestingly,  the main road lamps running through Little Clacton were replaced on the 31st of October, so they are about doing work. Luckily, he's been able to save an MA50 from the crew to add to his collection.

Up until a few months ago, the B1441 through Little Clacton was the only local large-wattage SOX installation in my area that hadn’t succumbed to LED. Ordinarily, it would have been included in Phase 3 of Essex County Council’s LED roll-out, which replaced part-night large-wattage discharge street lighting with LEDs.

In the late 1970s / early 1980s, the A133 (as it was) through the built-up area of Little Clacton was lit with what appear to be Concrete Utilities “Highway X” columns elongated by an additional 10 ft, with a concrete bracket and Thorn Alpha Five lanterns. The installation was three quarter of a mile long and streteched from the Parish boundary with Clacton-on-Sea to the end of the street-side housing near the Millennium Green.

From memory, the columns were sleeved sometime in the first half of the 1980s and GEC Z9554M lanterns were deployed, bringing an end to the Alpha Fives. About a third of these Concrete Utilities columns are still in use today, albeit with their near-40 year old sleeves now holding LED lanterns.

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This isn’t a photograph taken in Little Clacton some 40 years ago, but a photograph taken somewhere in the North of England (sadly I do not recall where) in July 2009. I stopped and took this photograph as it reminded me of the street lighting on the A133 through Little Clacton prior to the concrete columns being sleeved.

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Another photograph from July 2009 with a Thorn Alpha Five on an unsleeved column, similar to what was originally installed in Little Clacton. I recall the original brackets on the Little Clacton examples were only a little longer than the Alpha Fives themselves, so perhaps the 4 ft or 5 ft bracket.

As traffic volumes on the A133 increased over the years, the late 1980s saw the main road lighting extended to cover the less built-up area to the north of the village, adding another half a mile of large-wattage SOX lighting. Remote-geared MA50s were used on 10m octagonal poles. Before the arrival of the MA50s, there were intermittent pole-mounted Thorn Beta 5s and Eleco GR525s to the north of the village, and a 90W SOX Eleco GR100 on a 25ft Fabrikat column on the traffic island at the A133’s junction with the B1414. When the MA50s arrived, the Fabrikat column was resited to the B1414 and became column 1, where it still resides today.

Casual replacements along the main road were Eleco GR150s, GEC Z9554s, GEC Z9554Ms and Philips MA50s. After the sleeving of the concrete columns and the half-mile extension of the large-wattage SOX, there was little in the way of further change on the main road through the village. Lighting levels were boosted in the village centre with new SGS203 lanterns accompanying the installation of a zebra crossing, and in the early 2010s, SOX casual replacements ceased in favour of SON lanterns. Having said that, the road was also downgraded to a B-road when the Little Clacton and Weeley Heath Bypass opened in 1995.

The apparent omission of the main road through Little Clacton from Phase 3 of Essex County Council’s LED roll-out was a puzzle, but I was happy to continue to see over a mile of well-maintained large-wattage SOX in nightly service so close to where I live. When the street lighting crews inevitably did catch up, as noted by Chezo above, a zebra crossing appeared next to the Village Hall and Harold Lilley Playing Field, so I wonder whether the LED roll-out along this road was held back to coincide with these works.

The old SOX lanterns did well to hold on until October 2022, which was nearly 5 years after Essex County Council’s target date of replacing all of its part-night high-wattage discharge lighting by January 2019. Here are some photographs of the installation taken over the last few years:

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The former A133 / current B1441 through Little Clacton, as viewed from the B1442 roundabout to the south of the village in July 2020. This photograph was taken after the completion of Phase 3 of Essex County Council’s LED roll-out which should have seen this SOX lighting removed.

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Approximately the same view at night, as photographed in September 2022.

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The same view in December 2022, after the inevitable happened!

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The same view in daylight in April 2023.

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The main road as viewed from its junction with St. Osyth Road. This photograph was taken in May 2016.

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Approximately the same view at night, as photographed on a foggy night in December 2021.

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The street lighting along the main road switches off at 1am as part of Essex County Council’s part-night lighting regime. This photograph was taken a few moments after the one above.

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This photograph was taken in September 2022, which was more than three years after Essex County Council’s January 2019 target completion date for Phase 3 of their LED roll-out. Although these SOX lanterns seemed to have been “forgotten”, this photograph and the ones above indicate that the old lanterns were still well-maintained up to the time of their removal.

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Approximately the same view in December 2022, after the inevitable happened.

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When the Little Clacton and Weeley Heath Bypass opened in 1995, there was some reconfiguration of the roads to the south of the village. The new road connections to the bypass were lit with flat-glass Philips SGS203s. A short section of Progress Way, photographed above in July 2022, was also seemingly “missed” from Phase 3 of Essex County Council’s LED roll-out.

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The same view at night, as photographed in September 2022.

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When the main road through Little Clacton was converted to LED in October 2022, the opportunity was taken to also add LED lanterns to this road, which was one of the last remaining large-wattage SON installations in the Clacton area. This photograph was taken in December 2022.

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The same view in daylight in April 2023.

It’s also worth noting that the local Parish Council were six years ahead of Essex County Council when it came to replacing their SOX street lighting with LED. The Parish Council’s stock of Thorn Beta 5s, Eleco GR525s, Davis GR526s, Philips MI26s and GEC Z9580s were retrofitted with LEDs back in 2016.


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