Labour Councillor Fay Howard Calls on Council to Deliver LED Streetlights Across the Town

The Swindon Labour Group’s Shadow Lead for Streetsmart, Councillor Fay Howard, is calling on Swindon Borough Council to develop a program for replacing all streetlight bulbs with LED bulbs, which is expected to make the Council a likely saving of around £1.5m per year and would be good for the environment through less electricity being consumed.

The Swindon Labour Group’s Shadow Lead for Streetsmart, Councillor Fay Howard, is calling on Swindon Borough Council to develop a program for replacing all streetlight bulbs with LED bulbs, which is expected to make the Council a likely saving of around £1.5m per year and would be good for the environment through less electricity being consumed.

LED streetlights are proven to be more energy efficient compared to standard streetlights and provide a white light rather than the yellow light from standard streetlight bulbs.

Councillor Howard has pointed to Labour-controlled Plymouth City Council who have recently started rolling out the replacement of standard streetlight bulbs with LED lightbulbs to all of its streetlights across the city.

The rolling out of a LED Streetlight programme in Swindon would require upfront borrowing (Plymouth City Council borrowed £11.5m to roll out their LED Streetlight programme), however it is expected that the Council could make sufficient annual savings through rolling out LED streetlights to pay for the annual borrowing costs and make further savings to help mitigate budget cuts (Plymouth City Council expect to make on approximate average £1.5m worth of budget savings each year).

In 2011, the Conservative Majority Group on Swindon Council agreed to switch off streetlights in a number of areas across the town in order to make budgetary savings, however this decision was subsequently reversed following pressure from Labour Councillors and local residents.

Councillor Fay Howard said:  “With such significant savings being made by other local councils through installing LED streetlights, I think it’s a no-brainer that Swindon should be doing this aswell.

LED street lamps are environmentally friendly, use less energy and create less light pollution. It is estimated that replacement of the old lamps with LED technology could reduce the Council's street lighting costs by more than 50%.  

A number of other councils have already begun similar replacement projects to save money and I am already aware of Carillion at the Great Western Hospital installing LED bulbs on streetlights on that site to save money.

This project would require the Council to borrow money but it’s a very low-risk investment that would lead to residents having to spend less of their council-tax on electricity. And compared to risky ventures like the Wi-Fi project, I think this initiative is a much safer investment.”