Replacing Knowsley’s streetlights for the second time in a decade will cut emissions and save millions of pounds, the council has said.
Knowsley Council’s cabinet agreed on Wednesday evening to replace all 19,000 of the borough’s streetlights with LED bulbs over the next three years.
The decision is expected to save the local authority around £10.8 million over the next 16 years thanks to reduced energy bills.
Around £4.4 million of that will offset the cost of the replacement scheme, meaning the council should gain £6.4 million from the deal, or an average of £400,000 a year.
The deal should also bring a significant reduction in the council’s carbon emissions.
According to a report prepared ahead of the cabinet meeting, streetlights account for almost a third of the council’s total emissions and switching to LED bulbs should cut that by 40%.
The report said replacing the streetlights was a “key action” in achieving the council’s targets of reducing carbon emissions by 2040 following its declaration of a climate emergency in January.
It is only four years since the council finished its last round of streetlight replacements.
Between 2011 and 2016, the council replaced all of its streetlights under a £130 million private finance initiative deal with Tay Valley Lighting.
The council did consider using LED lighting at the time, but the technology was still relatively new and, a council report said, had “significantly higher capital outlay costs and unknown reliability”.
The price of LED lighting has since come down and the council will also be able to secure an interest-free loan from a government-backed company to pay for around half the cost of the new bulbs.
The rest of the cost will be met with further borrowing and £500,000 of reserves.
The council intends to begin replacing the streetlights in September this year, with an estimated completion date of 2023.
