Town hall bosses are considering swapping all 56,000 lamps for energy-efficient LED lanterns.

Every street light in Manchester could be replaced with LED upgrades in a £32m overhaul. Town hall bosses are considering swapping all 56,000 lamps for energy-efficient LED lanterns. They say the bulbs, which would be rolled out over three years, will slash the city’s energy bill and better mimic daylight.

Council officers believe it could cut their annual electricity bill by two-thirds and has launched talks with its street lighting partner Amey about the idea. According to a report going before councillors next week, there have been ‘significant’ advances in technology since 2004 – with the LED market ‘exploding’ into life.

One of the key benefits is that they emit light that is much more like daylight, it says, adding: “Given the projected increases in energy costs and these technological advances, it has become viable to investigate the installation of LED lanterns across all of Manchester, which would deliver various long-term benefits to the city. There will be significantly less glare, less upward light pollution and less light interference into people’s homes.

“On main traffic routes the new lights will offer safety benefits, the main improvement being more evenly distributed light and less glare for the motorist.

“Evidence also indicates that the new lights will remove the tiring effects of driving in and out of the bright and dark spots evident with present lighting technology.”

The move will also slash the council’s carbon footprint, the report argues.

Under the terms of the council’s Private Finance Initiative contract with Amey, 70pc of the city’s lights were replaced with new ones between 2004 and 2009. But now is the right time to introduce LED lights, the town hall believes, because the new technology has got much cheaper – and electricity bills are continuing to soar.

A council analysis of lighting in Cheetham suggests the move would cut electricity usage by 65.6pc.

City-wide it would cost around £32m, likely to be funded by council borrowing – as it gets cheap rates – and is expected to be paid off within 17 years as part of its existing PFI with Amey.

Officers are expected to seek approval from council bosses later this month to develop a detailed business case for the plan.

Sources:

1. Evening News:
   Manchester LED upgrade.