LED Replacement Programme 2024-2026

From December 2024, Balfour Beatty will commence work on a county-wide LED replacement programme throughout Cambridgeshire.

This project represents a significant investment by Cambridgeshire County Council, with the intention of saving approximately 70% electricity consumption and carbon emissions.

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

Benefits:

Huge electricity and carbon savings. We are projecting that this programme will save more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over the lifetime of the street lights, compared to leaving them as they are.

Reduced maintenance. LEDs do not need to be changed like normal lights with lamps (light bulbs). We should only need to come and attend the new lights every 6 years, to clean and electrically test them. Also, LED technology is very reliable and there should be very few instances of lights failing or not coming on at night. That should mean reduced impact on residents going forwards.

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

Better lighting. In Cambridgeshire, particularly on traffic routes, we currently use High Pressure Sodium (orange/yellow) lights. The new LEDs will increase visibility and colour rendition, making these roads safer for road users and pedestrians. The environment will appear ‘brighter’ even though it is not, due to the shift from orange to white light.

In isolated rural areas, a ‘softer’ white light will be used, which is more towards the red spectrum. This is slightly less energy-efficient but is beneficial to wildlife and bats in those areas.

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. The light will be focussed on our roads and footpaths, where it should be.

What to expect:

If you have a standard, Cambridgeshire County Council street light near your home, the light will be replaced within the next 2 years. You can see a programme, which will be updated regularly, at the bottom of this page. The programme is subject to change but we will endeavour to keep it up to date where possible. The programme will be based on town/village/area, but if you have a question about your particular street, please contact us.

Due to the size of Cambridge city, we will be carrying out some replacements almost every month in Cambridge itself. In smaller towns and villages, we are intending to carry out replacements in regions, so we can complete an area and move on, hopefully minimising any disruption.

The operation will be quick and non-intrusive. If you have seen our team carrying out maintenance on a street light near you, the process is very similar. Our operatives 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 lantern will be removed, and then replaced with an LED lantern. Finally, our team will test the installation, leave everything safe and tidy, and move on. The process typically takes 10-20 minutes, but the majority will be less than 15 minutes per lantern, especially in residential areas.

We are 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.

As ever with our operatives, if they cause a temporary obstruction and you need access, they will be happy to move or adjust. We will be working in teams of 2, to help mitigate any such issues.

FAQs:

Are LEDs safe? Yes absolutely. We have carried out research with Cambridgeshire County Council on this subject, and the LEDs 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. Issues with LEDs tend to occur when they are too bright, or exposure is at too short a distance and for too long, or if they are too far towards the blue spectrum. We have taken steps to mitigate all these factors. The LEDs will be as safe to the eye as the existing lights in place. We already have approximately 4,000 LED lights on our network which have been operating successfully for 5+ years with no issues.

Will the new lights be brighter? 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 possible 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, and in some cases may be less bright.

What if there is any new glare or light intrusion to my home following the replacement? LEDs have superior optical control compared to the existing lights. Therefore we are expecting a general improvement to lighting trespass. The new lights will do a better job of lighting the highway only, without sending much light backwards towards houses. The lights also emit zero direct light above the horizontal plane, i.e. there is no ‘upward’ light. Sideways light will be much reduced also. 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.

Which areas are subject to these replacements? We will be working throughout Cambridgeshire county, including Cambridge itself. Most of our street lighting inventory is subject to this programme. There are some lights not under our contract, which will not be 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. You can normally identify one of our lights by a label on the column in the following format: L1ABC.

Are there any lights not being replaced? Yes. There are a very small minority of street lights in our inventory not subject to this programme. These are mainly heritage or special/unusual lights. If a light looks ornate, or in some cases if it is on a painted or ornate lighting column, it is unlikely to be on the programme. You can contact us if you wish to check the status of any particular light you are concerned about.

Contact us:

If you have any questions or concerns about this replacement programme, you may contact us using the “Contact us” section of this website, or write to us directly at our dedicated email address for this project: CCCLED@balfourbeatty.com

Programme:

Below are links to our indicative programme of works, so you can see when we are planning to be in your area.

Like any programme of this size, the dates are subject to change. We will continue to update this page with updated versions of the programme.

Follow the links below to download the latest versions of our programme. A PDF file will open in a new tab, which you can search and find your street or town, and see the month/s we are expecting to work there.

Please click Here to view the full programme at town level.

Please click Here to view the full programme at street level.

The monthly headers below show each town currently programmed in for the next 6 months.