Council apologises for leaving Colwyn Bay building's lights on

Dec 16 2010 by David Powell, North Wales Weekly News

A CASH strapped council has apologised for leaving the lights on in an unoccupied building all weekend.

A dog walker in Eirias Park spotted the lights on in Colwyn Bay’s Civic Centre for up to 60 hours last weekend.

Chris Davies, of Old Colwyn, said they were left on in a building between the evening of Friday, December 3 until the morning of Monday, December 6.

“Upon closer inspection it became apparent the lights had been left on in two rooms,” he said.

“One room upstairs had six ceiling panels containing several bulbs each which were illuminated all weekend. A downstairs room had two standard bulbs switched on. As well as this I noted one of the downstairs windows was left wide open.”

Mr Davies said the waste was made worse by the fact Conwy County Council’s own website contains a page with suggestions for combating energy wastage. It advises: “Always turn the lights off when you’re not using a room. A single light bulb uses a small amount of electricity, but if a few are left on unnecessarily every day, the cost soon mounts up.”

Mr Davies added: “The fact the council defied its own advice and wasted energy and public money is quite frankly ludicrous.”

When he complained to the council, their e-mailed reply finished with the environmentally friendly message: “Please consider the environment – do you really need to print this e-mail?”

A council spokeswoman said: “Some services on the Civic Office site operate round the clock.

“However, we investigated Mr Davies’ concerns and can confirm the lights he noticed had been inadvertently left on. We have a process to ensure all buildings at the site are secured and lights are switched off at the end of each working day. We have therefore reminded staff of this process to ensure this does not happen again.”