Issue details

The Department for Transport (DfT) Challenge Fund and the £5m county council Invest to Save schemes are nearing completion and collectively have enabled 87,000 light emitting diode (LED) lanterns to be installed and approximately £3.4m saved from the street lighting energy revenue budget since 2014/15.

Following discussions with Salix Finance Ltd, a government funded body that provides interest-free funding to the public sector to improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and lower energy bills, a proposal has now been developed to enable the street lighting energy efficiency programme to be completed.  The proposal as detailed in the report meets Salix funding requirements and would enable a further 38,000 street lighting lanterns to be replaced with LED equivalents. It is anticipated the proposal will cost in the region of £9.200m, which would be funded by an interest free loan and enable a further £1.843m to be saved recurrently from the street lighting energy revenue budget per year when complete.

This is deemed to be a Key Decision and the provisions of Standing Order No. 26 have been complied with.