By Sarah Yates

MORE than 500 streetlights with more efficient and greener technology will soon be lighting the way to carbon savings.

Gloucestershire County Council is replacing streetlights in Quedgeley with LED technology which will significantly increase their life and improve quality of light.

The move will reduce the council’s energy use and with spiralling electricity costs, cut utility bills.

The work, starting on Tuesday, April 22, will take six weeks to complete carried out by the council’s maintenance contractor under its existing agreement to maintain street lighting.

There is no additional cost to the tax payer for installing the LED technology and 150 concrete columns will be replaced with galvanised steel columns which are guaranteed to last 40 years.

Reducing the costs of street lighting, having converted the lights in traffic signals and bollards to LED, the council is already doing all it can in a bid to cut carbon.

Part night lighting and dimming is taking place in areas safe to do so.

By the end of this year, it is hoped that 5,500 of the council’s 59,000 street lights will run using LED technology, saving 590 tonnes of carbon a year in energy emissions.

The new streetlights will be managed by a central system allowing the lights to be remotely dimmed or switched off for maintenance purposes.

Meaning that the county council will have a more accurate measurement of actual usage which will help to control or reduce its energy costs.

Councillor Vernon Smith, Cabinet member for highways said: “LED street lights can use up to 70% less energy than conventional sodium lights and cost less to maintain.

“They are more environmentally friendly, reducing light pollution as the light is directed downwards. The whiter light makes objects much easier to see, so people feel safer.”

Local County Councillor Mark Hawthorne said: “Local authorities up and down the country are starting to invest in LEDs because they are more efficient and they are better quality.

“I’m delighted to see this happening in my area and I am sure that local residents will be pleased when this work is complete.”

The council first trialled LED streetlights in Dursley in 2011, in 2012 more than 2000 street lights were converted across Cheltenham and Gloucester.

LED streetlights have also been introduced at Arle Court Park and Ride.