Locals left using torches as 'dim' street lights keep pavements dark
People living in Milton, north of Cambridge, have criticised the "dim" streetlights in the region. One local has described how the LED lights in areas such as Willow Crescent, which were installed in recent years, have become less bright as time has gone on.
This comes as Cambridgeshire County Council has announced plans to replace approximately 47,500 street lights across the county with LEDs, in a move that councillors believe will reduce light pollution and increase energy efficiency. Alison Louise Hannah, a concerned Milton resident, said: "When the new lights were installed a few years ago, at least one lamp post, to my knowledge, was removed.
"This, as I understood it, was because the new lights would be brighter and carry their glow further. Sadly, this was not to be the case, and we found ourselves having to walk home at night along the middle of the road.
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"This was a safer option than trying to negotiate an uneven, completely obscured pavement. Now that the lights are even dimmer, our only option will be to use a torch to reach home safely from the High Street."
Cambridgeshire County Council is responsible for more than 53,500 streetlights across the county. It estimates the scheme to replace the street lights will take around two years, and be finished before May 2026.
Councillor Alex Beckett, Chair of the Highways and Transport Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "So many of us having been replacing our old bulbs at home with more efficient LEDs. We’ve been working towards doing the same with our county council streetlights for a while, bringing them into the 21st century, and we're now ready to implement those changes.
"The new LED lights represent a huge carbon saving and will help bring us closer to our target of net zero emissions by 2030. LEDs are a particularly good solution, as they combine energy reduction with low maintenance costs, due to their longer average lifetime.
"It’s great to know that the money saved on energy will be put back into other vital services like road maintenance."
Electricity for the county’s streetlighting is bought through EDF Energy on a tariff, which a council spokesperson said guarantees that it is all from renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydro power.
This spokesperson continued: "LED technology is extremely reliable and there should be very few instances of streetlights failing or not coming on at night. The new streetlights are designed for 20 years of continuous life, with no maintenance (other than cleaning) required.
"The LED streetlights have been rigorously tested to ensure they provide a similar level of brightness on the road to that provided by the older, less energy efficient streetlights. In rural areas, a ‘softer’ white light will be used, which is slightly less energy-efficient but is better for wildlife, including bats.
"The LED streetlights emit light in a more concentrated way directly towards the road. This means that in a residential area, whilst the road is lit, other places such as verges and driveways, which were previously incidentally lit by the old streetlights, will now likely appear darker.
"Ensuring that the new streetlights do not significantly illuminate areas beyond the street itself will reduce light pollution and is one way that energy efficiency has been improved."
You can find out more about Cambridgeshire County Council's streetlight replacement programme here. You can find details of the rollout programme, broken down by town and road, on Balfour Beatty's website here. Balfour Beatty is the council's streetlighting contractor.
Information on how to report a street lighting fault, and likely repair times are on the council's website here.