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Street light replacement programme

We are committed to making Cambridgeshire a greener place to live and work. Reducing the existing carbon usage of street lights is therefore vital to achieving net zero carbon emissions from our assets by 2030.

In October 2023, the Highways and Transport Committee approved plans to introduce new low-carbon street lighting across the county.

From December 2024, our street lighting contractor Balfour Beatty started work on our countywide street light replacement programme across Cambridgeshire.

The roll out of newer, more efficient LED (light emitting diode) street lights is expected to cut energy consumption from street lighting by more than half.

We will be replacing over 47,000 existing street lights with new LED street lights over two years, so approximately 2,000 street lights will be replaced each month.

Benefits

Carbon savings

We expect that this will save more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over the lifetime of the street lights.

Reduced maintenance costs

LED street lights do not need to be changed like the existing lights. Our contractor should only need to to clean and electrically test the new lights every six years. LED technology is very reliable and there should be very few instances of street lights failing or not coming on at night. 

The new street lights are designed for 20 years of continuous life, with no maintenance other than cleaning required.

Improved lighting

The new LEDs will increase visibility, making roads safer for road users and pedestrians. The environment will appear ‘brighter’ due to the shift from orange to white light.

In isolated rural areas, a ‘softer’ white light will be used. This is slightly less energy-efficient but is beneficial for wildlife including bats.

Reduced light pollution

The new lights will emit zero upward light, and much-reduced sideways light. This should improve ‘sky glow’, particularly over Cambridge city, and will reduce light trespass into homes and gardens. 

Programme details

If you have a standard, Cambridgeshire County Council street light near your home, the light will be replaced within the next two years.

Our contractor will be carrying out replacements almost every month in Cambridge itself. In smaller towns and villages, our contractor is intending to carry out replacements in clusters so they can complete an area and move on, hopefully minimising any disruption.

Visit the Balfour Beatty website for details of when the street lights in your area will be changed and helpful FAQs.

FAQs

The operation will be quick and non-intrusive. If you have seen our contractor carrying out maintenance on a street light near you, the process is very similar. They will park their vehicle near the street light, and set out appropriate signage and cones. They will check and isolate the lighting column, then raise up to the light itself, in the ‘bucket’ of the vehicle. The existing street light will be removed, and then replaced with an LED street light.

Finally, they will test the installation, leave everything safe and tidy, and move on. The process typically takes between 10 and 20 minutes, but the majority will be less than 15 minutes per street light, especially in residential areas.

Our contractor is only replacing the lights at the top of the lighting column. There will be no digging, excavation or column installs as part of this project.

If our contractor causes a temporary obstruction during the work and you need access, they will be happy to move or adjust. They will be working in teams of two, to help mitigate any such issues.

Yes absolutely. Our contractor has carried out research and the LED street lights used for this project are comprehensively tried and tested, and pose no health concerns. We are working with a high-profile and trusted UK supplier.

The LED street lights will be as safe to the eye as the existing street lights. We already have approximately 4,000 LED street lights on our network which have been operating successfully for over five years with no issues.

In general, you can expect the LED street lights to be of equivalent brightness to the existing street lights. We have carefully selected products to effectively light the road network to the required lighting standards.

On traffic routes, the expectation is that the roads will appear to be better illuminated, however due to the way LED street lights work and some innovative design work, the street lights themselves should not appear to be any brighter, and in some cases may be less bright.

The LED street lights will do a better job of lighting the highway only, without sending much light backwards towards houses. The LED street lights also emit zero direct light above the horizontal plane, i.e. there is no ‘upward’ light. Sideways light will also be reduced.

In the event that there is an issue, we can arrange a site visit, and if appropriate, it may be possible for bespoke shields to be fitted to lights where required.

There are some street lights that will not be replaced as part of this programme. These include lights on National Highways roads (major A roads and motorways), parish-owned lights, lights belonging to a district council (such as South Cambridgeshire), and private lights, e.g. car parks and other non-highway spaces.

A very small number of mainly "heritage" or special/unusual street lights won't be replaced. If a street light looks ornate, or in some cases if it is on a painted or ornate lighting column, it is unlikely to be included in the programme.

You can normally identify one of our lights by a label on the column in the following format: L1ABC.

Contact us if you wish to check the status of any particular street light you are concerned about.

Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about the programme, please contact our contractor : CCCLED@balfourbeatty.com