Who actually wants this ? Apart from a lot of councillors who enjoy these vanity projects ?
What is the complete through-life cost ? i.e. initial marketing and planning, design, approvals, equipment purchase, installation, running, maintenance, and end-of-life disposal ? I bet its more than 250K, and WE are all going to pay for it.
If its a great idea, why not get some sponsorship ?

My local Council has a policy against light polution. I will take out an injunction against the project even if my Council ignore their own edict.
Like all Southampton "bling" its a cheap and nasty waste of rate payers money.

southampton city council is not paying - its being paid for by a grant from South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA)

Rob Wilson wrote:
southampton city council is not paying - its being paid for by a grant from South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA)

I just want to underline this point. People don't seem to realise that the cost of this project has nothing to do with ratepayers.

If only people would pay attention to the details, they would know this.

Dan has given us a flea in the ear for our poor observation. What the hoi polloy don't realise is that the money isn't coming out of their pockets. It's all being paid for by the Man in the Moon.

A few years ago, there was a large lazer display in London, bounced by mirrors arround the city. THERE WAS NO LIGHT FALLOUT FROM THE VERY NARROW BEAMS and, has anyone yet stated what the cost of RUNNING the lights? I should have thought very low electric useage.

SEEDA is a government funded agency. And like all government activities it is funded by the tax-payers. So it is coming out of our pockets!

You can be served an asbo for light pollution with security lights in the garden who will be serving an asbo to the council?

Has SEEDA or the council carried out an environmental audit regarding the constant display of the Green DPSS laser that will be beamed from the clock tower?
If the beam is visible from 25 miles away, I estimate the output power to be 1-5 watts laser energy. This would instantly blind a human eye and the damage would be permanent!
So the laser is 200 feet off of the ground, not for roosting birds flying into the beam? Instant blindness for the poor creatures! Any one like to turn up and protest this? I will be writing to my local councillor to stop it.

Millenium Clock all over again!!
That's the broken clock billboard opposite the Novotel, next to the rusty containers.

"THERE WAS NO LIGHT FALLOUT FROM THE VERY NARROW BEAMS"

One thing that has been overlooked is the 'me too' syndrome. If the council can shine lasers into the night sky then so can nightclubs, pubs, car showrooms etc etc. These might be actual 'lasers', or a type of light called a 'skybeam'.

These searchlight type lights send multiple *moving* beams of light up into the night sky. They are the single, most effective form of light pollution yet devised - one suitcase sized light can affect the sky over an area of tens of square miles. I know, I have seen them in action. If you have not seen one, you cannot imagine just how visually intrusive they are.

Is this a risk worth taking?

Why doesn't the council set a *good* example instead..?

It does not matter who is paying, the fact remains that at these times when councils and government are crying at not having enough funds, money is being wasted on this project. Just like the cheese grater that was erected at the start of Thommas Lewis Way and the other monstrosity erected in Northam. We have a severley autistic child and have to fight for every thing we need, it is not good to constantly see good money poured down the drain.

I wish the Council would beam down the right bus times at our bus stops. THAT would be useful. How many of these things have been installed for months but not yet running?

Waste of money. No one today thinks that because you have a laser you're technologically advanced. No one will give a hoot about lasers in the sky. There's nothing to do in Southampton at night but drink. There is a very good reason no one else in the world has done this, it's a TERRIBLE idea. Give the money to charity or build something for the kids. I will protest this idiocy.

A suggestion

a good positive idea, add in a new heritage centre housed in the city's former magistrates courts, all good stuff a possible winner

few snips of Southampton's maritime heritage easily found on the Internet

......................

Palaeolithic tools dating back 70,000 years have been found in Southampton's river gravel quarries


BC :The River Itchen maybe associated with the Celtic mother goddess Ancasta.( The Very Swift One ) an Altar inscription found in (Clavsentvm) Bitterne reads. DEAE ANCASTAE GEMINVS MANI VSLM


1st century AD, The Romans build a port at Southampton .


800/700 Saxon Southampton: Hamwic port was founded by the king of Wessex as the kingdom's main port-of-entry, Silver coins minted in their millions, metalworking, textile production, bone and antler working, glass working etc., unfortunately ( A warning for the modern car driven Southampton ) a dirty, polluted and unhealthy place, pockmarked (modern roads ) with rubbish and cess pits (modern pavements) , where disease and infection were daily hazards.


1066 : The port was developed by William the Conqueror who used it to transport goods between England and Normandy


1187 : The Third Crusade, Richard the Lionheart sailed from Southampton on his way to the Holy Lands


1319 : Southampton was the first port in northern Europe to be visited by Venetian Galley Fleets.


1415 : Battle of Agincourt, Henry V sailed from Southampton on his way to France


1554 : Southampton welcomed Philip, Prince of Spain (later King Philip of Spain of Armada fame), who arrived accompanied by a fleet of 140 ships on his way to Winchester where he married Queen Mary


1620 : the Pilgrim Fathers chose Southampton as their departure point


1842 : Summers and Day launched the first iron ship to be built on the Itchen


1899: Southampton was the major port of embarkation for the South African War, Great War 1914-18 and the Second World War 1939-1945


1912 : Titanic left Southampton on its maiden voyage


1969 : The Ballad Of John &Yoko, Standing in the dock at Southampton, Trying to get to Holland or France, The man in the mac said you've got to back,You know they didn't even give us a chance. Christ! You know it ain't easy,


2012: Southampton's heritage centre and four Lasers from the top of the clock tower on the city's Civic Centre is completed ?

......................


Southampton has a lot to be proud of, will a Heritage Centre with four laser beams draw big time and pay for it's running cost's ?


The suggestion

my backing would go to a real Solent Laser Gateway Arch

using lottery funding low cost Lasers ( on 5m high posts at half mile intervals ? ) from Calshot to Mayflower Park from one side of Southampton water to the other.

the Lasers being trigger off by passing passenger liners ( only beaming over the water)

if successful in time upgrade the Lasers to give holographic shows

in the years to come these passenger liners may give up noisy hazardous firework displays to pay ( thousands of £££££ ) Southampton City for Laser holographic shows

this will mean a lot of politicking by Southampton's councillors to get the work done,
but that's why we happily pay are Rates

please use this url to see a real Wow of a Laser show over Hong Kong Harbour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSyxhmGsdhA

James Barnett wrote:
Has SEEDA or the council carried out an environmental audit regarding the constant display of the Green DPSS laser that will be beamed from the clock tower? If the beam is visible from 25 miles away, I estimate the output power to be 1-5 watts laser energy. This would instantly blind a human eye and the damage would be permanent! So the laser is 200 feet off of the ground, not for roosting birds flying into the beam? Instant blindness for the poor creatures! Any one like to turn up and protest this? I will be writing to my local councillor to stop it.

Its a 5W laser. Thats Cat4 laser, which means it burns through paper like a knife. The seagulls and owls are in for a really bad time. Even a glint from a Cat4 laser can blind. Lets keep metallised kids balloons away from there.

I am extreamly unhappy about this plan which I have just read in the Daily Echo. Why has this not been more widely publised by Southampton's Council? I live less than 10 miles from Southampton and have spent a year building an observatory in my garden for Astronomical Research. If this project goes ahead my view to the South will be compromised by these wandering laser beams. For example to image a deep sky object can take a total imaging time of at least an hour. A wandering laser beam(s), albeit just 2.7 mm diameter could quite easily wreck this imaging. I urge the Council to consider other ways of celebrating Southampton's historic past.

Southampton Clock Tower Lasers - Titanic Disaster Remembrance

as a remembrance it makes me feel uneasy not going along with the Clock Tower Laser scheme

who'd of thought a remembrance to the lost souls of Southampton would cause so much angst

does anyone know how the Titanic remembrance has been narrowed down to this one plan?

a bit late and for what it's worth..

how about a project to reduce Southampton's carbon emissions in the name of the lost?

like replacing all lighting in Southampton with low power LED's

starting off with the back lighting of Southampton's Clock Tower

the latest LED's are far better than glow and halogen lamps in terms of power efficiency, and outpace fluorescent lamps in terms of life span

It maybe possible to replace all of Southampton's Street Lighting,

LED Street Lights can consume half the energy of 100 watt High Pressure Sodium luminaires and there is no bulb replacement for 50,000 hours or more than 10 years.

finally not as a remembrance replacement project, has anyone opinions on a Southampton Water " Laser Arch", low cost lasers from Calshot to Mayflower Park ?

The laser will spoil the enjoyment of the night sky for ordinary people. In addition, the council does not have a right to cause problems outside its city boundary, as the laser will. The laser will open the flood gates to countless other laser light shows, which will be a disaster.

Forget tacky lasers - they will not draw visitors to Soton. Instead, bring the Queen Mary from Long Beach, California, back to its home port. Thousands would come to Southampton to view it and think of the tourist revenues it would generate!!

Who originally thought this idea was a good thing?
Of all the important issues that the exremely well paid councillors could be turning there attention to I really cannot agree that a new bauble on the top of the Civic centre clocktower is the best use of there time.

Its been mentioned that the quarter of a million cost isn't being paid by the public? I don't understand where it's coming from then but what of the electric bill and the maintenance costs?

Surely in a time when our environmental conscience is being slowly awakened we should not allow our representatives to do something as wasteful and pointless as this.

Tacky is EXACTLY the word for the effect this lightshow will have.

James Barnett wrote:
Has SEEDA or the council carried out an environmental audit regarding the constant display of the Green DPSS laser that will be beamed from the clock tower? If the beam is visible from 25 miles away, I estimate the output power to be 1-5 watts laser energy. This would instantly blind a human eye and the damage would be permanent! So the laser is 200 feet off of the ground, not for roosting birds flying into the beam? Instant blindness for the poor creatures! Any one like to turn up and protest this? I will be writing to my local councillor to stop it.

the beam of a green DPSS laser of 0.5 watt (500mW can be seen head on for alot more than 25 miles. try 50-60 miles.
but even at 1 mile, the diverging beam would be round 1.5 meters - unable to harm the retina on the eye. so as far as safety precautions go, well there arent any.