Derbyshire to Get Around Budget Cuts Using LED Streetlamps

Facing £157m budget cuts over the next few years, Derbyshire County Council decided that some lateral thinking was needed. The result is the plan to replace its over 68,000 existing streetlights with low energy LED lighting to help balance the books. By James Hunt:

The LED lights are expected to last for 25 years, which will lead to lower maintenance costs, and they use less electricity.

Derby Telegraph

Derbyshire County Council is to replace over 68,000 streetlights, with lamps and luminaires replaced with new LED light fittings. At the same time, over 22,000 older lampposts will be replaced. The reason for this £23 million investment is the very significant budget restrictions imposed upon the Council.

The amount of money that the Labour-led Council has paid in electricity for streetlights has risen in recent years because of the increase in fuel prices. Since LED lighting uses less electricity and prices keep going up, it is envisaged that the £23m investment could be paid back in just a few years from the savings made.

According to a report for the council's cabinet, the proposed scheme would make savings of about £1.2m at current energy prices. In any case, it is understood that, of the lighting changes that the Council is going to make, most of those to be replaced by LEDs were coming to the end of their natural lives anyway.

The Conservatives backed the plan but were concerned that some lights will be left to go out and never be changed, despite that fact that good quality LEDs lighting should last for many years before failure.

Derbyshire County Council is also, it seems, considering retrofitting more of its conventional lighting – nearly 70,000 units - representing about 78% of the county's total. The other 22% are more than 6m tall, which the council says makes LED lighting too expensive to install.

And it’s not just the Council that is keen on the plan, as a recent public consultation asked people if they would support investment in LED street lights, and 90% of respondents agreed.

Eight year’s payback

Said Deputy Cabinet Member for Jobs, Economy and Transport, Councillor Dean Collins: I'm delighted that we are able to make this investment in streetlights.

"We're facing huge budget cuts of £157m over the next few years and we need to look for imaginative ways to do this. In just eight years we will have paid for the investment we are making.

"By investing in LED street lights we will save money on electricity and maintenance and reduce our carbon footprint.

“We will borrow the money, which will be paid back over 20 years. The LED lights are expected to last for 25 years, which will lead to lower maintenance costs. And they use less electricity," he concluded. In fact, as already stated, it is likely that the payback period will be a mere eight years, not 20.

Turning them off

Earlier this year, Derbyshire County Council decided to turn off 40,000 streetlights between midnight and 5:30 a.m. to save money, a measure that caused great controversy. This plan was called ‘part night street lighting’, with the idea that some lights (away from town centres, certain traffic routes, and other critical areas) would be switched entirely between midnight and 5.30am.

This measure, it was estimated, would save up to 2,000 tonnes of carbon every year - 10% of the total carbon produced by Derbyshire’s street lights, and the equivalent of taking 625 cars off the road. It would also save more than £400,000 a year on energy bills. In 2012, the Council spent around £5m on lighting and maintaining streetlights with £2.8m spent on electricity.

Surprisingly, here is no legal requirement for councils in the UK to provide public lighting.

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