Part-Night Use of Street Lights - Find a freedom of information request

Q1) How much money did LCC save last year following the conversion of street lighting to part night use in Louth and/or across the County?

Q2) How much does it actually cost to convert a street light back to all night use?

Q3) Why is the quoted cost to Town and Parish Councils of £300-£350 per light to convert part night lighting back to all night use so expensive?

Q1) The overall savings made from the Street Lighting Transformation project implemented in 2016/17 were in the order of £1.7 M at the time and over 6,200 tonnes of CO2. The project included a combination of moving to part-night lighting, conversion of higher wattage lamps to LED and a smaller number of complete switch-offs.

However, the financial savings are being eroded subsequently by ongoing energy price increases (e.g. 11% in October 2018 and expected to be similar in October 2019).

Based on an average energy cost of £0.14 per kwh in 2018/19, last year part-night lighting saved around £688k across the County and £24k in Louth.

Q2) The charge made by the County Council  for conversion to all-night lighting, as agreed by Members, is either £150 when done as part of routine maintenance or £300 when done as an additional visit to the column.

When done during routine maintenance, the £150 covers EITHER:

• The cost of conversion to LED, Or
• If already LED, the cost of replacing the photocell and the additional energy cost for the foreseeable future

  When done as an additional visit to the column, the £300 covers:

• The costs as above PLUS
• The additional costs of the contractor making an additional visit to the column outside of normal working hours, so that the routine maintenance programme is not interrupted.

Q3) Please see the response to Q2) above noting that the charges are either £150 or £300