Street light dimming project approved
Powys will be an even darker place soon, as a decision has been made to dim the street lights to save just under £28,000 a year.
A decision to move money from one account to another within Powys County Council (PCC) that will fund a street light dimming project has been approved,
This would see some bulbs replaced, but lights also re-programmed to dim after a certain time during the night, using less electricity.
Under delegated powers, Environment portfolio holder, Councillor Heulwen Hulme has authorised passing £84,690 from PCC’s Invest to Save reserve fund, to the Highways Transport and Recycling (HTR) Service.
This money will now be spent on special bulbs and also the labour costs of two engineers to go around fitting and reprogramming the lights sometime this year.
Head of HTR, Adrian Jervis, explained: “The aim is to reduce the wattage of existing compatible street lighting installed during the last LED phase.
“This will be carried out over the course of six months and will generate a saving of around £27,900 a year.”
Mr Jervis added that over four years the annual savings would be paid back into the savings fund to repay the investment.
The saving has been calculated on the basis of energy costing 0.14pence per kilo-watt hour (kWh).
They calculate that reprogramming the 21W (Watt) LED lights to part night saving would produce a financial saving of £6,435 a year.
The calculation for 70W LED lights would produce a saving £21,465 a year.
In the past switching off street lights in the county has raised health and safety concerns, as well as fears that the crime rate would rise.
A proposal in the 2019/20 budget to save £150,000 by asking town and community councils to pay for street lighting was eventually dropped.
This was due to fears it could increase the problem of “County Lines” drug dealers using the cover of darkness in the county.
PCC first took their initial decision to switch off some street lights back in 2008.
