In the coming months, work will begin to replace all of Liverpool’s street lights with new LED lights.
The Council has decided to change the current, old ‘orange’ sodium lights to LED lighting to reduce its carbon footprint and energy usage, in its drive to make Liverpool a greener city.
LED lighting has been found to produce a whiter, clearer light which is more consistent and improves the lighting over the traditional ‘orange’ lights. This helps with visibility at night and leads to a public feeling of increased safety locally.
Approximately £2.6m is spent by Liverpool City Council per annum on the energy costs associated with running the 57,000 street lights and illuminated signs and bollards across the city. The upkeep of old street lighting is costly both in terms of energy consumption and ongoing maintenance costs, and this is money that could be invested elsewhere.
The LED street lighting programme will be completed in phases over the next two years as part of a £7m investment into the project. Phase one will begin in June 2014 and will see 12,000 street lights fitted with the new LED lights.
The Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson said: “We have decided to bring LED street lighting to Liverpool to improve the lighting across the city and make our streets safer. This will help to make our city greener and a better place to live by saving over 1,400 tonnes of carbon emissions each year. Our maintenance costs will also reduce by £2.7m overall over the next five years once all of the street lights have been converted. We can then reinvest this saving in to other key services for the benefit of our local communities and the prosperity of Liverpool.”
Liverpool City Council is working with Amey, who deliver highways and street cleansing services across the city, to roll out the new LED street lighting. The implementation programme has identified the oldest street lights to replace with new LED lights and will begin in Fazakerley, with 1,038 lights being converted across 158 streets over a four week period, starting in June.
The remaining 22,500 street lights, serving 3,214 streets within the city will be upgraded over the next two years. The annual programme and further information about LED lighting can be found online at www.liverpool.gov.uk.
