Street light replacement programme

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 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 installations 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 LEDs to be of equivalent brightness to the existing lights. We have carefully selected products to effectively light the road network to the required lighting standards. In Cambridgeshire, no specific lighting levels are required to be met for residential roads, so the new LEDs will as closely as possibly replicate the distribution of the existing lights.

On traffic routes, the expectation is that the roads will appear to be better illuminated, however due to the way LEDs work and some innovative design work, the lights themselves should not appear to be any brighter.

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.

If 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.

Within the 47,000 lanterns to be changed. 13,000 lanterns that are fitted with standard photocells will be programmed to dim by 40% light output between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

The remaining 34,000 lanterns will be dimmed by 40% light output via control from our central management system (CMS) between the hours of 10pm and 6am. 

The new LED lanterns are controlled by either photocells or our central management system (CMS).

The lanterns are switched on at dusk and off at dawn, this is the same operational times as we have always used for our streetlights in Cambridgeshire. 

The existing central management system (CMS) already has the capability to lower or switch off lights where not needed. 

34,000 of the streetlights in this project are currently controlled by our central management system (CMS) and the new LED lanterns fitted to these will have replacement CMS nodes fitted that can identify faults. 

If lighting remains a concern after changes, the council has a process to assess needs and respond as appropriate. This involves working with the Parish/Town Council and considering whether additional lighting features are required.

Where this is the case we will work with our contractors to implement additional lighting measures in a timely manner.

To report issues, please email our contractor Balfour Beatty at CCCLED@balfourbeatty.com to discuss your concerns.

If a resident contacts the County Council or Balfour Beatty to request shields to prevent light trespass on to their property, we arrange for a lantern shield to be fitted to the streetlight near to their property.

The lantern shields can be fitted to the rear, side or front of the lanterns.

The total number of lights that will be changed is 47,000. 

As of 5 October 2025 over 22,000 lanterns have been replaced which is nearly halfway (47%) of the project completed.

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 will not 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.

Before the start of our LED upgrade programme in December 2024, energy for streetlighting (including illuminated signs and subway lights) made up 53% of the County Council’s entire energy use.

Once all LEDs are in place, the energy used for streetlighting will reduce to 33% of the County Council’s total energy use.

The KWh savings per year equate to £1,500,000 annual cash savings which is the project aim based on the current kWh rate that the County Councils pays its electricity supplier.

The projected energy reduction is 6,191,161 kWh per year, upon project completion.

The annual carbon reduction per year upon project completion year equates to 6,191,161 * 0.075 = 464,337.075 KgCO2e. Which is 464.3 tonnes per year reduction.

The LED lanterns that are being installed on all of the traffic routes have been designed to meet the lighting requirements of the streetlighting British Standard BS5489-1:2020 - Design of road lighting, with the LED lanterns selected for residential roads being selected to provide broadly similar lighting levels to the lanterns that they replace.

This project excludes the majority of town/city centres where we would normally expect to find known crime spots.

Crime monitoring is carried out by the police. The LED upgrade project has been designed in line with British streetlighting standards and ensures lighting on residential roads is broadly similar.

If the Police make us aware of any concerns or if one of the CCTV teams in Cambridgeshire contacts us with concerns about effective lighting levels we would review the changes in lighting in the specific area and consider changing either the dimming levels or lanterns in that location.

Crime Scrutiny Panel Briefing Paper - Street lighting Perception versus Crime (opens as pdf)

Yes, it is currently being delivered to the agreed programme and the budget is on track.

We are aiming to complete the project by September 2026.

£13.2m

We have had a small number of residents contact us to ask for lantern shields or to switch off one of the new LED lanterns.

In general the feedback we get is that the new LED lanterns light output is much better controlled than the old lanterns that they replace and that the light trespass on their properties has reduced. 

We are part of the award-winning ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK project. Funded by the Department of Transport (DfT), one of the aims is to improve sustainability through different approaches to streetlighting, one of the most energy-intensive aspects across the highway network.

Update: October 2025

Half of Cambridgeshire’s streetlighting has now been upgraded to newer, more efficient LED (light emitting diode) lights, as part of a project to substantially reduce the County Council’s carbon emissions. LED lanterns are due to put in place in your area within the next 6 months. 

LEDs can cut energy consumption from street lighting by more than half. When complete, the LED upgrade project is anticipated to save around 464 tonnes of CO2e and over 6m kWh each year. The newer lanterns are also more reliable and offer a whiter light which is focused directly downwards on to the highway meaning there’s less light spill into surrounding areas.

The project, which is being carried out by contractors Balfour Beatty, has replaced 23,750 lights and will replace 47,500 street lanterns by late 2026. Cambridgeshire County Council is responsible for more than 55,000 streetlights across the county including some which have already been upgraded to LEDs as well as heritage lights.

Reducing the existing carbon usage of streetlights is vital to achieving our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2030, and in addition to the environmental benefit, the installation of energy-saving LED lighting will help to significantly reduce future spending on streetlighting.

Prior to the start of the programme in January, streetlighting accounted for 53% of the County Council's total electricity use. Once the project is complete in late 2026, streetlighting will represent a third of the Council’s electricity use and a saving of around £1.5m a year on the organisation’s electricity bill.

Electricity for the county’s streetlighting is purchased on a tariff which guarantees that it’s from 100% renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydro-electric power.

LED technology is extremely reliable with very few instances of streetlights failing or not coming on at night. The new streetlights are designed for 20 years of continuous life, with no maintenance (other than cleaning) required.

The LED streetlights have been rigorously tested to ensure they provide a similar level of brightness on the road to the older, less energy efficient streetlights. In rural areas, a ‘softer’ white light will be used, which is slightly less energy-efficient but is better for wildlife, including bats.

The LED streetlights emit light downward, in a more concentrated way directly towards the highway. This means that in a residential area, whilst the road is lit, other places such as verges and driveways, which were previously incidentally lit by the old streetlights, will now likely appear darker. Ensuring that the new streetlights do not significantly illuminate areas beyond the road will reduce light pollution and increase energy efficiency.

If lighting remains a concern after changes, the council has a process to assess needs and respond as appropriate. Work to put in additional lights in Milton is scheduled in November, with discussions about the need for extra lights ongoing with six other parishes.