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Saving energy and reducing crime are the two issues that Hampshire County Council is looking to improve with its planned large scale replacement of street lights. Using more energy efficient lamps and dimming of lights in low crime, residential areas are to be factored into the replacement of the Council's street lights to help reduce carbon emissions. Safety is to be improved through a higher standard of lighting in town centres, main traffic routes and in above average crime locations. Hampshire County Council, in partnership with West Sussex County Council and Southampton City Council, is procuring the replacement of a substantial part of its street lighting stock through a joint Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The PFI is a £225 million investment, covering the initial replacement, maintenance and operation of the street lights for 25 years. When the Council came up with its original business case for the street lighting PFI it was initially proposed that there would be a significant increase in the number of streetlights to achieve higher lighting levels and therefore despite improved energy efficiency of the lamps themselves energy consumption looked likely to increase by around 30%. As this was an unacceptable environmental impact in terms of carbon output, the Council subsequently conducted research, surveys and a number of pilots to see what public views were. These considered different types of lighting, the number of street lights required in different areas and whether lights could be dimmed or switched off through part of the night. The County Council has now agreed that it will ask bidders for the PFI to base their final tender on using white light fluorescent lamps in most locations, replacing streetlights on a one for one basis in low crime areas and on lights being dimmed in low crime residential areas. The Council will also ask bidders to offer remote monitoring equipment which would allow lighting levels to be controlled from a computer, and automatic logging of lights out. However take up of this option will depend on affordability. Leader of Hampshire County Council, Councillor Ken Thornber, said: "The changes we have agreed to the specification will mean that the predicted 30% rise in energy consumption will be wiped out but safety and security will still be improved through the use of white light and increased light levels being confined to the areas where this will be of help. "Part night dimming of lights in low crime residential areas has been largely supported in the surveys we have conducted and other countries have successfully been using dimmed lights for a number of years. We feel it is a good solution to what originally appeared to be conflicting priorities of reducing carbon emissions and maintaining our aim to have safer and more secure communities. "Remote monitoring technology is relatively new and we will be the first to use it on such a large scale, however we feel the benefits it provides with flexible lighting levels and not needing scouts to check lights are functioning, mean it is the best route to go down if it is affordable and works well. If we sign up for this technology we will still retain the option to revert to fixed dimming if early phases are not sufficiently reliable." Changes to the original business case need to be agreed by the Department for Transport under PFI rules. The South Coast Councils will be inviting final bids at the start of 2009, with service commencement in autumn 2009. The total street lighting stock covered by the PFI is approximately 250,000 items, including illuminated signs and bollards. Not all areas will have their lighting replaced. Locations that are unlit at present will remain so, and areas that already have adequate or recently upgraded street lighting will not have columns replaced under this PFI. Similarly, if another organisation has installed streetlights and they do not form part of this PFI, their lighting will be unaffected. Around 13,000 of the streetlights in Hampshire are operated by district, town and parish councils. For more information visit Hampshire County Council |
