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Street lighting in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire County Council would like to change the way in which street lighting in the County is funded and managed.

Hertfordshire sits at the heart of one of the country’s busiest road networks - traffic volumes here are 35% above the national average. Quality street lighting to keep our extensive highways network safe and secure for all is essential.

Hertfordshire has an excellent record of investment in its street lighting, but we are now finding it difficult to keep up with the ageing of our huge stock of over 110,000 street lighting units. The county council is therefore applying for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits to help fund an improved service.  

A long term arrangement over the next 25 years could see the rapid replacement of all of our existing street lighting with modern equipment, which would be more energy efficient and help to reduce Hertfordshire’s carbon footprint.

What is already happening?

Hertfordshire Highways carry out routine day to day maintenance such as lamp changes and accident damage repairs and there is also a programme of replacing the worst street light columns where there is a risk of collapse, which currently amounts to around 1000  street lamp columns each year.

However, we currently face a number of challenges in delivering our street lighting service, such as:

The majority of street lights in Hertfordshire are old, expensive to repair and need replacing.

Our maintenance service is limited by budget availability. Current funding levels mean it would take over 100 years to provide a complete replacement of all of our street lighting!

Electricity costs currently account for almost half of the council’s street lighting budget, and the energy used is responsible for around 22,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.  Inefficient street lighting is responsible for a significant carbon footprint due to high energy consumption.

If the bid is successful, Hertfordshire could expect to receive approximately £139 million in PFI credits over 25 years, with the majority of investment taking place in the first five years.

For further information, please select the link "Dept. of Transport: Street Lighting PFI" (Right hand side of this page).