Welsh Council Proposes £1.1m Spend On LED Street Lights

A council in Wales has discussed the proposal of installing LED panel lights worth £1.1 million in an attempt to save the local authority money in the long run.

Rhondda Cynon Taff (RCT) Council met yesterday (January 21^st) to talk about the possibility of fitting 1,515 lights on local housing estates at a cost of £333,000, Wales Online reported.

In addition to this, it would replace any broken street lamp with LED lighting, costing an estimated £797,000, according to the number of renewals (5,532) that were required between 2014 and 2015.

Despite this huge outlay, it believes installing LED lights will save approximately £254,000 per year from 2017-18.

Huw Jenkins, highways technical services manager at RCT Council, said the local authority will end up spending less money on maintenance costs as LED lamps last much longer.

“LED units also consume less energy and, therefore, attract lower carbon taxation costs,” he stated, adding the decline in the price of LED units over the last few years means it is “particularly cost effective” to issue the replacements now.

RCT Council is in charge of 28,600 street lights in total, which is why it believes significant savings could be made with more energy-efficient products.

This comes after South Ayrshire announced it is replacing all its street lights with LEDs, the Daily Record reported.

It is thought that replacing the 22,365 lamps will result in energy savings of 70 per cent, and 1,260 LED lighting units have already been installed in the area.