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Leeds Live
Leeds Live
National
Kristian Johnson

Why £22 million is being spent on replacing 90,000 street lights across Leeds

The final details of a city-wide project to replace 86,000 street lights all over Leeds have been revealed.

It was announced back in December 2018 that Leeds City Council would look to upgrade every single street light to new LED lamps.

Decision-makers originally thought that the four-year scheme would cost £25.4 million, but a deal has been secured which will cost just £22.5 million in total.

6,000 street lamps have already been earmarked to be converted to LEDs - but today's announcement means the remaining 86,000 lights across the city will also be replaced in the coming years.

The massive infrastructure project will begin in September.

The council currently spends almost £5 million a year in energy costs to power every street light in the city. Once the LED installations are complete, it will save the local authority £3.4 million every single year.

This equates to a 62% in the amount of energy needed to power street lights and is seen as paramount in the council's commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

More than 2,000 people responded to a public consultation about the scheme, with overwhelming support for the upgrade.

There were also suggestions from residents to turn more street lights off at night, but the council has confirmed this will not happen.

Leeds City Council executive member for climate change, transport and sustainable development Cllr Lisa Mulherin said: "Having made a commitment to doing everything we can to tackle the climate emergency and become carbon neutral as a city, looking at our street lights and making them as energy efficient as we can by converting them to the latest LEDs is a key priority.

"As well as making them much more energy efficient, and being fully recyclable, this programme delivers significant financial savings and will have paid for itself in around seven years."

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