Hundreds more streetlights to be converted to LED lighting

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Wednesday, 1 March 2023 20:28

More than 700 Shropshire Council streetlights are set to be converted to LED lighting in March.

Since 2013, over 7,900 of the more than 20,000 lights owned by the council have been converted from conventional ‘sodium discharge’ lighting to LED lighting. In the next 12 months a further 12,500 streetlights will be converted.

Work began on 6 February [2023] to convert 230 lights in Shrewsbury to LED. Now, hundreds more in Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Market Drayton, Whitchurch and Shawbury are next in line.

Richard Marshall, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways, said: “Shropshire Council is responsible for 20,000 streetlights and all are being replaced with LEDs. This will save money for the council and for council tax payers, and reduce carbon emissions.

“Converting our remaining streetlights to LED lighting is something that will save us well over £1m a year once the conversion programme is complete.

“We’re currently working hard to tackle a backlog of antiquated lighting in need of repair, and the new LED lanterns will help to speed up this process and result in fewer faulty or failed streetlights in future.”

It’s estimated that the total cost of the conversion work will be £6.3m. Of this 44% is being paid through an interest-free loan from Salix Finance.

The conversion will save the council more than £1m a year in reduced energy and maintenance costs once the conversion is complete, and save almost 7,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.