LED streetlights given the go-ahead

10 October 2017

An ambitious plan to replace standard sodium streetlighting with new LED technology has been approved by North Yorkshire County Council Executive members.

Five to seven thousand of the County Council’s lamps will be replaced up to March next year, and the funding for the rest of the programme will be sought via the annual budget report in 2018.

The County Council maintains 50,400 streetlights in North Yorkshire, which cost about £2.1 million to power and £1.2 million to maintain every year.

The new, more efficient LED equipment will cost about 40% less to power and it is anticipated it will offer an annual saving of about £1.285 million on completion of the project.

 

 

The decision to go ahead was agreed after Executive members considered a report on the business case for replacing all streetlights maintained by North Yorkshire County Council with new LED technology over the next three years.

The new lights are more environmentally-friendly than the standard ones and can play an important part in reducing carbon emissions.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Highways said:

A number of LED street lights are already operating across the county where the original lights have been replaced because of faults, and we’ve found them to be a great success.

Our ambitious new plan will see our exisiting lights replaced by LED lights, and they will give us a range of financial and environmental advantages over traditional technology.

A great benefit is that they will allow us to provide a quality street lighting service at an affordable price, saving around 40% on our running costs. They will certainly help mitigate any future rises in electricity prices.

And very importantly, we estimate we will achieve a significant reduction of over 3.3k tonnes in the council’s carbon footprint.

The initial areas the programme is focusing on are in Whitby, Selby, Northallerton, Skipton and Richmond. The County Council has prepared a range of questions and answers about the LED streetlight plan. Visit  www.northyorks.gov.uk/streetlighting for more information.

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