Part night street lighting roll-out continues

Around 630 streetlights in residential streets in Priory and St Leonard’s will be converted to part-night lighting from Monday 13 July.

The converted streetlights, previously on all-night, will be switched off from about 12:30am to 5:30am, before coming on again until dawn. The change is part of Devon County Council’s on-going programme to reduce costs and carbon emissions across the county.

Lighting on main and busiest roads and walk-home routes including Topsham Road, Barrack Road, Magdalen Road, Bovemoors Lane, Haldon View Terrace, Church Lane, Burnthouse Lane, Dryden Road, Bridge Road, Wonford Road, Marlborough Road, Radford Road, Wonford Street (between Burnthouse Lane and Dryden Road) Rifford Road and St Leonards Road (between Magdalen Road and Wonford Road) will remain lit all night.

Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Highway Management, said: “More than 47,000 residential streetlights have now been converted in Devon, having been introduced in communities across the county. The feedback we received during the city-wide consultation events has helped develop the scheme and we have been able to create a network of busy ‘walking home routes’ which will remain lit all night. Busy areas of the city centre and main roads will also remain lit all night.

“We need to reduce our energy bills and emissions like any household, and our on-going roll-out of part night street lighting across Devon is successfully cutting carbon emissions and costs. The policy is saving around £500,000 a year from the Council’s electricity bill and it has reduced our Co2 emissions by 3,200 tonnes since the policy began in 2009.”

Councillor Andy Hannan, local County Councillor for Priory and St Leonard's, said: “I know that this is not a move that will be welcomed by some residents, but there were relatively few objections received in the consultation and there were a substantial number of responses in favour.  In any case, part-night lighting is going ahead so we shall have to monitor it and its effects carefully.”

Residents can report any issues online at https://new.devon.gov.uk/roadsandtransport or by calling the Customer Service Centre on 0345 155 1004 from 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am – 1pm on Saturdays.

Devon County Council is responsible for over 77,000 street lights, costing around £3.55million in electricity in 2014/15 and producing nearly 14,300 tonnes of CO2. This accounts for around 30% of the County Council’s annual emissions, which stands at almost 62,000 tonnes of CO2, and is the equivalent of the total annual energy use of 7,300 average Devon homes or a town about the size of Honiton.