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Street lighting Policy

Published: 17/04/2015

A revised street lighting policy, which aims to provide the most cost effective and efficient service, and minimise the Council’s carbon footprint, will be discussed by Cabinet on Tuesday (21 April). Flintshire County Council owns and maintains over 20,000 street lights and 3,250 illuminated signs across the County. It also maintains trunk road lighting on behalf of Welsh Government. The annual consumption of electricity for all these units is currently approximately £864,000 a year. New technical advancements in the industry mean that options to change how street lighting is managed and delivered are now possible. These advancements are helping the Council to achieve its aim and commitment to reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint. These include installing energy saving equipment and low energy lighting units for all replacements. The revised policy has been devised following consultation with County Councillors, and town and community councils. It will introduce an extension to the part night street lighting. It is proposed to turn off street lights in selected areas between midnight and 5am. Standard response times for repairing Flintshire County Council street lighting faults are being amended to 10 working days. The exception to this are locations which have been risk assessed such as vulnerable areas (for example, sheltered housing, CCTV and other defined critical sites), where the standard time will remain as three working days. The Council will also reduce its night time inspection regime. It currently carries out evening inspections to identify faults on a 14 day cycle, but this will be extended to 28 days. As well as providing energy efficiencies and carbon reduction savings these measures are expected to see a potential saving of £50,000 per year once fully implemented. Councillor Bernie Attridge, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, said “The overall objective of the Council’s street lighting policy is to manage and maintain a safe and efficient street lighting network that ensures the safety of all – helping to improve driver behaviour, reduce crime and promote a safer community. “Plans to reduce street lighting resource and introduce part night street lighting were agreed as part of the budget setting proposals, to help us in our challenge to find significant financial savings. We are grateful to the County, town and community councillors who attended the workshops and provided feedback on these revisions; these have been incorporated into the new policy.”