Project to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions from Street lights

Leicestershire County Council currently own and maintain 66,000 street lights and 12,000 illuminated signs. The Council has an ambitious programme to reduce our carbon emissions by 30% by 2014. We also need to save £70 million over the next 4 years. One of the ways we will be able to achieve these targets is to reduce the level of street lighting we provide across the County.

In addition we are now using low energy bulbs when installing a new street light or undertaking lantern replacements on existing street lights. They provide a similar level of illumination while reducing energy consumption by about 30%. We are also removing illumination from signs wherever we are able, whilst still ensuring we comply with government regulations.

What is planned?
We will be dimming some of the brightest lights on our main roads between 10.00 pm and 7.00 am, and switching off some lights completely in rural areas or in other locations where there are no houses fronting onto the roads. We will also be part-night lighting streets in residential areas (switching lights off between midnight and 5.30 am) in consultation with local communities. The emergency services support these proposals in principle and will be consulted on all proposals. They will also be involved in monitoring the effects of any changes.

How much will this save?
We estimate that these plans will reduce our current carbon dioxide emissions by up to 3000 tonnes per year - that’s 23% of our total street lighting emissions (equivalent to the carbon used to boil 277 million cups of tea!). Of course this project is all about saving Council tax-payers money too, and we calculate it will save up to £700,000 per annum.

What are other councils doing?
Several other county councils including Essex and Gloucestershire, have completed successful trials of part-night lighting schemes, and Leicester City Council are rolling out dimming of lights on the main routes into the city.

Which lights are affected?
We will carry out a design and risk assessment for every area in which changes are proposed and as part of this process, we will identify street lights that are not to be altered i.e. will remain operating all night. These street lights will be identified using a set of criteria and in addition, through consultation with the parish or town council and the emergency services.

We are currently developing our plans and no specific decisions have yet been made on which lights will be affected. Further information will be added to this website as our plans are developed.

For further information see our Frequently Asked Questions

To tell us what you think of our lighting proposals use our lighting feedback form.