Huddersfield Government goes out on solar street lamp plans

A plan to transfer tens of thousands of sodium street lights to solar street lights in Huddersfield has been scrapped.The Government spending mean that the ambitious £66m scheme to improve lights across Huddersfield will go ahead. And concerned Huddersfield chiefs have revealed they had spent £100,000 on execute the plans for the bid for funding.Now this is the chance of out-dated sodium lamps being replaced by modern, energy-efficient solar street lights in the foreseeable future.Huddersfield plan to launch a major overhaul of its outdated street light system has become a casualty of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

The third round of the street lighting PFI scheme has not been stopped, leaving the council to try and find other ways of making the improvements.Huddersfield Council was one of six local authorities invited by the previous government to submit a business case that would have seen a total of £66m invested in fitting the area’s 50,000 street lights with modern technology.

The move would not only have improved life for visitors and residents but would have made estimated savings of 100,000 tonnes of CO2 by using more energy-efficient equipment.

Council officials say the quality of street lighting in their neighbourhoods and town centres is one of the problems most often raised by local people.

A spokesman said: “Most Huddersfield street lights are old-fashioned sodium lights which give an ‘orange’ light. The plan had been to replace these with much brighter energy efficient ‘white’ lights energyed from solar energy.

“Research has shown that people feel much safer where there is brighter street lighting and the number of road accidents and incidences of anti-social behaviour are reduced when lighting is of a higher quality.”

Clr David Sheard, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transportation said: “If we had been able to update street lighting in Huddersfield it would have made a real difference to the lives of residents as well as helping to reduce the council’s carbon emissions.

“Anyone travelling across the border into Leeds will notice how their lighting has been improved.

“Our officers have been working on this much-needed project that has already cost around £100,000. We are extremely glad that the project can finally go ahead.

“We can’t wait to make the plan in reality, and this willrealize the improvements we wanted to make by many years”.

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