Street Lighting

Transformation Project Update

You will be aware that the county council is transforming the way it provides street lighting in Lincolnshire. The aim is to save over £1.7m per year and reduce LCC’s carbon footprint, light pollution and ongoing maintenance needs. It currently costs approximately £5m per year to operate and maintain the county council’s 68,000 street lights, with almost £3m of this being spent on electricity. The authority can no longer afford to maintain existing lighting levels and separately has to meet strict targets for carbon reduction, as set out by the Climate Change Act of 2008.

The project started making changes in April 2016 and has already reduced the county council's street lighting energy consumption by 25%. So far changes have been made in and around Lincoln, Gainsborough, Louth, Grantham, Sleaford, Stamford and Bourne. The street lighting crews are currently working in the Spalding and Holbeach areas and will be moving on to Boston, Skegness and Horncastle in the new year – with a view to completing the changes by the end of March 2017.

In order to achieve the required savings, we need to make changes to 58,000 of our 68,000 street lights by the end of March 2017, and this is what our resources are currently focused on. However, we are still dealing with faults and issues with individual lights. Although these are considered on a case-by-case basis, they are mainly dealt with when the programme visits the area to introduce LED or part-night lighting.

Faults that are reported after the programme has visited an area will again be considered on a case-by-case basis but are generally investigated when we next have an emergency maintenance crew in the area.

We are still responding to emergency faults in accordance with our normal processes. Emergency faults include columns that have been knocked over or in a dangerous condition and likely to cause harm including; electrical wires exposed, column door missing, light cover hanging loose.

We are aware that some residents may have an increased fear of crime as a result of the changes. You may be interested to learn that Warwickshire County Council has specifically analysed crime data since the introduction of part night lighting in their area. They have reported that domestic burglary has reduced by 24% and anti-social behaviour has reduced by 29%. You can read about these results at http://news.warwickshire.gov.uk/blog/2014/07/03/15703/

Source: Richard Hardesty [Senior Project Leader (Major Schemes)] – Lincolnshire County Council, Highways Alliance

Lincolnshire County Council

https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/transport-and-roads/road-management-and-maintenance/management-services/street-lighting/