Street Lighting Consultation 2023/24

Overview

One of Trafford Council's corporate priorities is to tackle the climate emergency.  Using less energy and reducing consumption of electricity used by street lighting, will support this priority.

Due to current volatile energy markets, the costs associated with street lighting, has more than doubled in the last 12 months alone.

Therefore, proposals to alter the timings and illumination levels are being explored.

The Council is looking to manage its energy consumption across Trafford to help save energy costs, but also to reduce the carbon footprint of the Authority. Presently there are around 23,000 streetlights that have been converted to LED efficient light source across the borough. The lights have the ability to be dimmed at different lighting levels, helping reduce light pollution and save energy.

The proposal is to vary and reduce current lighting levels gradually during the evening and overnight hours in lower usage and lower risk areas by 20%. The lighting has the ability to be switched back up in known hot spots, if there was a change in use of an area or if crime and safety problems warrant an increase in lighting.  Therefore higher risk sites and conflict areas such as busy junctions would not be dimmed as part of this proposal.

Why your views matter

The times that street lighting can be switched on or off can also be managed to save energy. Current LED lights do not need to be switched on early to warm up to full brightness, like older lighting units do.

The proposal therefore is to also switch lights on gradually later in the evening and to switch lights off gradually earlier in the morning during the first and last hour of lighting, to contribute to the above energy saving.

What happens next

Results of the consultation will be used to inform the way forward on reducing energy consumption used for street lighting across Trafford.