Will the Last One Who Leaves Budapest Please Turn Out the Lights?

In a drive to save Ft 66 million in the second half of the year, city-owned lighting company BDK has been instructed by the municipality to only deliver “basic services,” which does not include automatically turning on lighting in public spaces when natural, ambient light falls below a certain level of intensity. Instead, from July 1 the lights have been switched on and off only at fixed times, which are adjusted every ten days.

This means that the lights are staying off for longer in the period before dawn. They are also not being automatically turned on when thunderstorms unexpectedly cause the skies to darken, as happened on several occasions during the first week of the new “lights out” regime, causing some local to wonder if something was wrong with the city’s lights.

So if you were also wondering, the answer is no, there’s nothing wrong with the city’s lights, just with its finances. [Index.hu/Pic via TheGoodReverend]