We are responsible for around:
- 70,000 street lights
- 2,000 lit bollards
- 8,000 lit signs
- 300 Vehicle Activated signs
- 500 beacons
Our streetlights consist of a variety of different types, including:
- lighting columns
- lights attached to walls or wooden overhead line poles
- lighting in subways
- decorative columns in heritage and conservation areas.
We are working hard to ensure our lighting forms part of a sustainable highway network. We do this by operating part-night lighting, dimming lights and using LED lamps to reduce carbon emissions and minimise energy consumption.
Part-night lights use preprogrammed photocell technology to switch on at dusk and stay lit until midnight. Over the winter, they come on again at around 06:00 and operate until dawn.
Inspections and maintenance
Routine night-time inspections
We inspect street lights at night using night patrols to check that the lights work.
- Lights that remain on all night are inspected every 8 weeks throughout the year.
- Part-night lights are inspected every 8 weeks between October to March.
Any lights found not working are then included in our regular fault repair activity.
Routine maintenance
Each street light and lit sign is included in routine maintenance every 6 years as part of a cyclic inspection and test programme, which includes:
- Sign/lantern cleaning
- Replacement of lamp / LED functional check
- Complete electrical testing and visual inspection of the general condition
Where possible, repair of any faults found is carried out there and then; where this cannot be carried out, the work is included in our regular fault repair activity.
In addition, lit bollards are cleaned on a separate cycle every year.
Other maintenance
We keep regular maintenance records for all our street lighting. This information helps us organise other maintenance activities such as dealing with emergencies, replacing knocked down or damaged lights and relocating lights when paid for by third-party clients.
We are also converting all our low-pressure sodium lights to LED for reduced energy consumption and improved life span. This work will expand to include converting more than 16,000 mercury-based lights across the county.
A programme of column structural testing started in 2023, which will give us more accurate data about the condition of our street lights and help us continue targeting future investments in our street lighting network most effectively.