Newsroom

Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, Nottinghamshire County Council Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment

Our Cabinet has just signed off the final stages of a decade long-project to change nearly all of the streetlights in Nottinghamshire’s seven district and borough council areas.

An investment of £2.1m will see 11,000 old lanterns in Bassetlaw and Newark and Sherwood districts changed to new carbon-saving LED bulbs, with works scheduled to finish in April 2023.

We started this mammoth county-wide project in 2014, with the LED streetlight conversions fully completed in Broxtowe, Mansfield and Ashfield last year.

By the time the project finishes next year, 94,000 Nottinghamshire streetlights will have been switched over to LEDs by our highways team and partners at Via East Midlands – a fantastic achievement.

To date, our streetlight conversion project has saved 90,000 tonnes of carbon without any change of service for the public.

The project is a core part of our pledge to become carbon natural as an authority by 2030 and complements other exciting initiatives like the roll-out of electric buses.

Having the most up-to-date and efficient street lighting available also results in significant cost savings from less energy consumption and reduced maintenance. 

Calculations show that our conversion to LED streetlighting will save £2.2 million per year across the county once the Bassetlaw and Newark and Sherwood programmes are complete and those savings included.

This will mean that by 2024, around £15 million will have been saved since the LED conversion project first began.

This is a huge win for protecting our precious environment and for taxpayers who expect their money to be spent wisely.

Meeting our Nottinghamshire Plan ambition to work towards a greener future for everyone is something I am determined to do.

I’m glad we can save this money through this innovative project - it means we can invest it back into vital services in challenging economic times.

More than ever, it is essential that we work efficiently – as we have with the switch over to LEDs – to deliver high-quality public services.