10 roads to shine brighter thanks to more street lighting

September 15, 2019 by Leigh-on-sea.com

Sixty new LED lampposts will be installed across five Southend streets this autumn, thanks to funding added to the budget by the council’s new joint administration.

The roads to benefit from additional street lighting will be Lymington Avenue, Oakleigh Park Drive, Leighton Avenue, St John’s Road and Ruskin Avenue.

These works are being funded through an additional £125,000 that was added to the council’s budget in July 2019. A further £125,000 has also been budgeted to continue infill works in 2020/21. 

The upcoming autumn work follows the installation of thirty-six new LED lampposts in Crowstone Road, Pembury Road, Stornoway Road, Northville Drive and The Crossways. Connections for the lampposts in Northville Road and The Crossways are programmed this month.

Cllr Ron Woodley, deputy leader of the council, says: “The ambitious project to replace Southend-on-Sea’s street lighting with LED lighting has proven a major success, with carbon emission and energy bills reducing.

“LED lighting provides a different kind of light though, and since the work was completed, councillors and officers have been working with local people to identify a number of roads that require further lampposts to be installed to improve the light coverage and safety for local communities.

“The new administration was delighted to add £250,000 to the council’s capital budget to carry out work this year and next, and we are already looking at funding for the years beyond that too so that we can carry out further infill works where it is required.” 

The £13.5m project to replace all of Southend-on-Sea’s 15,000 streetlights with LED’s started in August 2015 and was completed in August 2017. Along with reducing carbon emissions, the project is also set to save £25m over 25 years.