Work has started this week on the new £7million upgrade of all of Bournemouth’s street lighting to more energy efficient technology.
Over the next few months the Council will be replacing all of its 16,500 street lights including 15,000 lanterns, 1,100 columns & lanterns and 500 illuminated bollards with low energy modern Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology.
The modern lighting will better conserve energy, reduce the town’s carbon footprint and deliver efficiency savings of £32.2million against projected costs over 20 years. Currently the council spends £1.1m a year on street lighting energy.
The Council have appointed SSE Contracting to carry out the upgrade.
Councillor Michael Filer, portfolio holder for Transport, said: “This is a huge programme of improvement works which will benefit the whole town. Our lighting network is ageing and in need of modernising and I am delighted that work is now beginning on this upgrade. The work will take some months to complete but once installed the new lights will lead to a 73 per cent energy saving in current street lighting consumption which equates to large environmental and financial savings.”
The project is being funded through £4.26m from Salix, a Government energy projects funding provider, with the remaining £3.5million coming from the Council.
The new modern LED fittings will emit a crisper and white light and will make street lighting brighter compared to existing lights.
