Street lighting improvements

LED street lighting improvement programme

We are updating our street lighting in the former district and borough council areas. This will involve:

• replacing around 4,500 existing lights with LED technology
• replacing a number of street lighting lamp posts and columns
• converting many of the lights to part-night operation, where appropriate

Reasons for the upgrade

• reduce our energy consumption and carbon emissions - replacing our existing street lights with LED lighting will lead to energy savings of more than a million kw/h and will save around £300,000 in annual energy costs, based on current energy rates
• obsolete lights - we will be unable to repair a lot of our lighting in the next five years due to changes in EU legislation that have made many of the lamp types obsolete. It is less efficient and more expensive to replace these lights on an ad-hoc basis so we will instead be replacing them as part of a planned programme over three years
• to support the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Parks with their International Dark Sky reserve status and comply with their requirements for colour temperature, helping to create a clearer view of the night sky

Since 2012, we have already replaced around 50,000 street lights with LED technology and replaced around 22,000 ageing concrete street lamp posts. This has reduced our street lighting energy consumption by half, saving about 10 million kw/h (enough to power 3,500 homes for a year) and providing savings of £3.5 million per year in energy costs, based on current energy rates.

Street light upgrade map

Find street lighting that is due be upgraded or changed to part-night lighting on our map. We'll add new areas to the map when they are scheduled to be upgraded.

You can see whether a street light is being upgraded (green) and also switched to part-night lighting (orange) using the legend menu bar in the top right of the map.

View the street light upgrade map

Benefits of using LED lighting

Compared to standard street lighting: 

• LEDS are much cheaper to run 
• LED lanterns have a lower failure rate and longer life expectancy so they will require less maintenance

Differences between old and new street lights

The older street lighting appears yellow or orange in colour (around 2,000K on the Kelvin scale), while LEDs produce a whiter light. However, the latest technology will allow us to install lighting at around 2,700K to 3,000K which is a warmer, white light.

This Kelvin scale shows the various colour temperatures:

Image

As LED lighting is brighter, it is easier to differentiate colours. This will improve visibility for motorists and pedestrians.

Disruption

Disruption will be kept to a minimum as replacing the lanterns takes around 15 to 20 minutes per unit and it involves using a single vehicle (a cherry picker). Replacing individual lamp post columns will take three to four days to complete. This will involve some minor digging up of the roads but restoration work will then be carried out.

We will contact any property owner before starting work to replace lamp bracket arms that are currently attached to buildings.

If you do experience significant disruption, or you are unable to enter or leave your property, please speak to a member of our on-site team.

Reducing light pollution

The old street lighting spreads light in all directions, including upwards, causing light pollution and light to spill into the windows of private properties. LED lighting is easier to control, so we can focus the light down onto the roads and pavements and therefore limit the amount of light spilling into homes and gardens.

If you experience any light intrusion with the new LED lighting, please contact us and we will investigate it.

Part-night lighting

Around 60 percent of street lights across North Yorkshire automatically switch on at dusk and off at midnight. If required, the lights then come on again at 5am and go off at dawn.

As part of this upgrade, around half of the former district and borough council street lights will be changed to part-night lighting. Areas that will not be converted to part-night lighting include:

• those with high nighttime activity, such as town centres
• areas experiencing high crime and anti-social behaviour
• areas which suffer or have suffered from nighttime road traffic accidents
• areas where road humps or other traffic-calming measures are used, and speed limits are 30mph or over

Legal requirements

There is no statutory requirement on local authorities to provide public lighting. The law states that:

• the Highways Act empowers local authorities to light roads but does not place a duty to do so
• a council has a duty of care to road users and has an obligation to light obstructions on the highway
• a council has a statutory duty under the Highways Act to ensure the safety of the highway and this includes any lighting equipment placed on the highway

Maintaining road safety

Streetlights which are needed to ensure road safety will not be selected for part-night lighting - this includes streetlights at:

• major roundabouts and junctions
• pedestrian crossings
• traffic lights
• speed bumps or chicanes 

The majority of lights will only be switched off from about midnight when most drivers are not on the road, and will be switched on again around 5am. Evidence suggests that levels of crime and numbers of traffic accidents do not increase.