North Northamptonshire Council to borrow £6.2m to replace streetlights with LEDs

North Northamptonshire Council is set to spend £6.2m on converting streetlights to run on LED bulbs amid spiralling electricity costs.

The full council will meet on Thursday (November 24) to consider the proposal to use the lower-energy bulbs for 22,000 lights on adopted highways.

The authority’s 10 executive members have already given the green light to the proposed scheme, but under council rules all spend over half-a-million pounds must go before the full council.

A report by officers states that the cost of running the county’s streetlights has doubled since April, leaving them with an unexpected bill of an extra £1m this year and £0.5m next year following the introduction of the Government energy price cap. But costs are likely to rise yet again the following year.

LEDs used about 70 per cent less energy than other types of bulbs.

The installation will also mean that the lights can be remotely monitored by a central management system. Currently, employees are sent out to spot any broken streetlamps. The project will take 28 months to complete and is expected to cut the council’s street lighting energy usage by two thirds.

Back in 2011, cash-strapped NCC signed a new £230m, 25-year streetlight contract with Balfour Beatty that promised the replacement and upgrade of all streetlights in Northamptonshire. But it now appears the bulbs used were mostly old-style Cosmopolis, SOX and PLL lamps, which are becoming obsolete as more councils switch to LEDs.

There is no mention of why these type of bulbs were chosen in the report to Thursday’s meeting.

The report to councillors states: “In respect of alternative choices, the only foreseen workable alternative would be to change some areas to part-night lighting. This would likely halve the energy usage but could only likely be applied to around 50 per cent of the asset – avoiding traffic routes, conflict zones, road safety lit areas and town centres.”

The new bulbs will have a ten year guarantee, with a 20 year guarantee on the casings. Members will be told there’ll be a carbon reduction of 500 tonnes.

The council expects to borrow £6.17m from a Government-backed, low interest fund to be paid back over approximately eleven years when the authority starts expecting to see the scheme paying for itself, with a saving of £41,000 by 2032/33.

Lights formerly managed by boroughs and districts, including some in public open spaces, car parks, and pedestrian areas will not be replaced as they are managed under a different contract. Only those that were included as part of the Northamptonshire County Council legacy PFI Connect Roads contract with Balfour Beatty will be replaced.

If the full council give the go-ahead to the plan, the finer details of securing funding will be delegated to Executive Member for Highways, Travel andAssets Cllr Graham Lawman, the Executive Member for Finance Cllr Lloyd Bunday and senior council officers.