Night light project saves
Written by Shaun Moore on May 5, 2010
Gloucestershire County Council is on target to save more than £200,000 and cut carbon by almost 1,400 tonnes in the first year of its night lighting project. 
In February 2009, the council launched a scheme to turn off some street lights in rural areas and market towns between midnight and 5.30am.
This was followed in April 2009 by a street light dimming scheme where high wattage bulbs were dimmed by 35% between 10pm and 5.30am.
Both schemes have been extremely successful with £202,760 savings and a carbon reduction of 1,392 tonnes – enough to boil 90 million kettles.
In total 59 parish and town councils have already taken part in the night lighting project with 32 more signed up to start the scheme.
So far 4,556 lights have been adapted for part night lighting with another 2,440 awaiting conversion.
In addition 9,540 high wattage lamps have been converted to dim after peak traffic hours.
Southern Electric Contracting completed the work and local company Micatron UK Ltd, based in Upper Rissington, provide the equipment for both schemes.
Both companies have worked well with the council and their continued cooperation has helped the projects progress so well.
Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment, said: “As a council we’ve committed to reducing our carbon footprint and our energy usage and these projects have done just that.
“This is an excellent result which has only been made possible with the support of our contractor and equipment supplier, but more importantly with the cooperation of parish and town councils across the county.
“Looking for new and innovative ways of saving money and cutting carbon is something we will be focussing on from now on and this is a great start.
“I look forward to seeing the projects progress in future.”
Each local council has a bespoke scheme tailored to the needs of their area so the volume and locations of part night lighting is decided in consultation with them.
Before starting the projects, the council invited Gloucestershire Police to comment on the proposals regarding safety for pedestrians and motorists and they have confirmed the schemes are safe.
Gloucestershire’s scheme has being hailed as best practise by other councils across the UK with 24 local authorities asking for information on our projects.
It has also been praised by the County Surveyors’ Society, which represents local authority chief officers and was shortlisted for a Guardian Public Sector Service awards.
