Gloucestershire County Council has been awarded £5million to improve street lighting – and the cash will also boost road maintenance at the same time.
Today (24th March) the Secretary of State for Transport, treat Patrick McLoughlin, search announced that Gloucestershire County Council has been successful in its bid for £5m to the government’s Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund.
The UK challenge fund is a pot of money earmarked for one-off major infrastructure schemes across the UK.
In Gloucestershire this will be used to put in a central system to allow automatic control of streetlights and reporting of faults. This project will also include the replacement all of the county’s concrete and aluminum street lighting columns with galvanised steel columns which are stronger, tadalafil have a longer life and are better value for money.
There are around 60,000 streetlights in Gloucestershire which consume around 20.5GWh of power each year at a cost of £2.4 million. With electricity costs rising sharply the county council is already committed to converting street lighting to LED (Light Emitting Diode) which are more environmentally friendly and cost less for local taxpayers.
The work is expected to start this summer and take four years to complete. However, the announcement has an added bonus because money that had previously been set aside to pay for the street lighting works can now be redirected into road maintenance instead.
Cllr Vernon Smith, cabinet member for highways and flood said: “LED street lighting uses less electricity reducing carbon emissions and saving money for taxpayers by cutting the electric bill. We’re delighted that our bid has been successful because we can now strengthen our existing plans for LED replacement and bring a more cost effective service for residents. It also allows us to divert more cash into fixing our roads over the next year.”