Street lighting

Street lighting - LED replacement programme

Most of our street lighting is maintained through the 'Connect Roads' contract with Balfour Beatty, managed by West Northamptonshire Council.

We are now investing in LED street lights, as these are now considerably cheaper and provide the same light quality. The replacement programme will run to early 2026.

Between 2011 and 2016, street lighting was previously replaced with ‘white light’ units that reduced North and West Northamptonshire's annual energy consumption from 29,244,404 kWh down to 8,764,725 kWh by 2022/23, helping reduce our carbon emissions and offering better value.

System

We can identify outages and other faults by including all new lights in our centrally managed system. This runs on the 2.5G phone system (not 5G).

Lighting

Standards

Lighting will meet our lighting standards, which haven't changed.

These standards are not a precise light level, but a range with upper and lower limits. Levels are affected by:

• the distance from the lamp
• road layout
• junctions
• light spacing and height
• vegetation and other obstructions
• what brightness we can set lights to

There isn't set level of lighting required by law, so we decide on a discretionary basis:

• where to provide light
• to what level
• when and if they dim
• whether they operate on a part-night basis

Light levels

Lighting will be more consistent than before. Some areas may appear dimmer, but the old levels likely exceeded our standards, as many older lights couldn't be dimmed below a certain level before stopping working or lighting moved into the 'blue spectrum' (which can keep people awake).

Some areas may appear brighter or darker as you move along a road and this may be noticeable as spacing of columns increases, but the average uniformity level of light along any road will meet the our standards.

Nuisance light and glare

LED lights are much more controlled, so any private properties and non-highway areas currently impacted by older lights will get less nuisance light. If back-shields are needed, we will fit them, but they're very unlikely to be needed.

Glare is much less likely from the LED lanterns.

Costs

The project will cost us £6.1 million.

Had LED lights originally been installed in 2011 (factoring in electricity, maintenance, installation, lantern efficiency as well as higher numbers of lights), the estimated additional cost to the contract would have exceeded £30m over its 25-year duration.

At the time, LED technology wasn't proven and lights weren't as energy and optically efficient than now. Extra lighting points would also have been needed, all adding to the cost.

Health

A Public Health England report raised concerns with LEDs with a colour temperature exceeding 4,000 Kelvin.

Our lights will be 3,000 Kelvin (warm white) avoiding this concern. 

Wildlife

Our existing lighting is currently ‘white light’ and the new lanterns will be more controlled in terms of unnecessary light. We have selected 'warm white' which guidance says is better for wildlife.

Crime and accidents

Accidents

Previously, the county council switched off half of its streetlights, including removing lighting on some roads where the speed limit exceeded 30mph. 

Accidents rates, severity and speed of vehicles all reduced significantly while daytime levels remained largely unchanged.

Crime

There was no hard evidence to support increased crime rates, but close contact was maintained with the police and lighting was switched back on in a few locations where needed for active police surveillance and enforcement. We'll continue to work with the police and adjust lighting if they ask us to.

Last updated 25 October 2023