Promenade at Night

[Dirty Buggane]

Never had a problem pissing on the beach, some people having lunch were not happy?.

[La Colombe]

Which is handy because the bogs have shut been closed. 

[De nada]

50 minutes ago, Zarley said:

Another superfluous post.

 

It's like you learned a new word and want everyone to know about it. 

Every day is worthwhile if I can teach somebody a new word. 😉

[La Colombe]

It's not a new word. It's a very old one. Early 15th century. 

[Roger Mexico]

The Promenade lighting was a classic example of how infrastructure investment gets done on the Island.  There's a problem with maintenance which is taken as an excuse to go for a whole new replacement project.  Rather than assessing the actual local requirements, the first possible off-the-shelf solution is chosen with assurance that everyone else is doing it.  If expensive 'bespoke' adjustments then have to be made, all the better, it will make those involved feel special. Savings will be made by going for the cheapest option and cutting corners, even though that may undermine the whole thing.

Whether something will work is ignored; how something will look will be brushed off as irrelevant namby-pamby aesthetics.  Cost saving are assured, even though no calculations are seen; capital costs are ignored because they come from a different budget.  And the original maintenance problems will be ignored as well and will quite likely occur all over again.

While a move to the cheaper running costs and possible flexibility of LEDs was clearly a good idea in principle, they seem to have decided to go for the look and lighting levels of a run-down industrial estate on the edge of a medium sized Midlands town.  Lighting levels and direction seem geared to those driving, rather than walking and even then coverage is uneven.  The light mix is too blue as well, even though this may be related to health and other problems and a warmer mix would be possible with LEDs and more in keeping.

Basically it looks awful and doesn't work in practical terms, but this will never be admitted and no analysis will be done to see how it could be fixed or to find out what went wrong.

[Katman]

I have noticed that quite a few of the new lamp posts have bubbling paint in the lower sections, no doubt caused by rust underneath. Hopefully they have a good warranty on them and the specification ordered included for extreme coastal conditions.

[Jarndyce]

12 hours ago, ADELE said:

This is entirely down to the last Douglas Town Council who voted to get rid of the lovely lights that illuminated the promenade for years it was a unanimous vote with the exception of Raina Chatel I think David Christian was the council leader .   This was to save money apparently, a false economy in a lot of people’s eyes.

In the clamour of the rent-a-mob to kick the current DBC, the iniquities of Mr Christian tend to be forgotten.

How expensive would it be to reinstall the festoon lighting, with LED bulbs (avoiding frequent changes and maintenance) of differing colours - hell, you can even get LED bulbs that you can set to a particular colour.   Massive goodwill, relatively low initial cost / ongoing maintenance, providing they get the right bulbs in the first place.

Or a meringue?

[Dirty Buggane]

Hell they could of just kept what they had and swapped out the lamps, leds come in any fitting you want. Whether it be bayonet or edison screw, but no they wanted a new toy on the grounds of cost. So costs at £2,000,000 + and ongoing maintenance/problems getting it to actual work and still a piece of shit. Where is the cost savings, could of run the old system for another decade and still have change for fish suppers all round with lashings of ginger beer 😁 

[Andy Onchan]

2 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

The Promenade lighting was a classic example of how infrastructure investment gets done on the Island.  There's a problem with maintenance which is taken as an excuse to go for a whole new replacement project.  Rather than assessing the actual local requirements, the first possible off-the-shelf solution is chosen with assurance that everyone else is doing it.  If expensive 'bespoke' adjustments then have to be made, all the better, it will make those involved feel special. Savings will be made by going for the cheapest option and cutting corners, even though that may undermine the whole thing.

Whether something will work is ignored; how something will look will be brushed off as irrelevant namby-pamby aesthetics.  Cost saving are assured, even though no calculations are seen; capital costs are ignored because they come from a different budget.  And the original maintenance problems will be ignored as well and will quite likely occur all over again.

While a move to the cheaper running costs and possible flexibility of LEDs was clearly a good idea in principle, they seem to have decided to go for the look and lighting levels of a run-down industrial estate on the edge of a medium sized Midlands town.  Lighting levels and direction seem geared to those driving, rather than walking and even then coverage is uneven.  The light mix is too blue as well, even though this may be related to health and other problems and a warmer mix would be possible with LEDs and more in keeping.

Basically it looks awful and doesn't work in practical terms, but this will never be admitted and no analysis will be done to see how it could be fixed or to find out what went wrong.

'Tis the way of things on Mann. Isle of Man....Where You Can..... piss away taxpayers (& ratepayers) money with impunity.

[Roxanne]

5 minutes ago, Andy Onchan said:

'Tis the way of things on Mann. Isle of Man....Where You Can..... piss away taxpayers (& ratepayers) money with impunity.

That's the most galling bit of all. The amount of money spazzed away on unnecessary projects and paying for poor government management, but a string of beautiful lights to grace our Victorian promenade? No, we can do with the Chinese bazaar LED lights that stop working if someone farts close by.

They can all fuck off.

BRING BACK OUR LIGHTS.

[Asthehills]

I can’t help wondering how many of those knocking the lighting have actually seen it running when all working?

I know I haven’t as I am rarely down there when it’s dark at this time of year and know it was out of action for at least all of last winter.

Therefor I shall reserve judgment until I am either down there after 11pm one night over the next few weeks or next winter.

[Roxanne]

2 minutes ago, Asthehills said:

or next winter.

It'll be broken again by then.

[ADELE]

I would not hold your breath ATH it could be a long,long wait.

[Max Power]

I don’t know what they could do to recover the situation now, other than sue the charlatan who destroyed the atmosphere down there. I’m certain that DBC have gone along with the whims of some fly by night lighting “experts” who have not really presented a proposal to improve anything. DBC will be partly responsible for not having a firm idea of what was needed and just giving some millennial a free hand to ruin the ambiance of the town, sorry city!

[Omobono]

in the meantime the loverly  cast aluminium  3 legs of man  symbols that adorned the previous bespoke  and  very  fitting lighting  poles  are gradually being sold off at a local auction house , only to be replaced with the rubbish and ineffectual   street lights we now have , there needs to be some answers from the city fathers ,  must be £1 million  wasted  ,