Shropshire Council is to begin work next month to convert a further 12,500 streetlights to LED lighting in the next 12 months.

Since 2013, over 7,900 of the more than 20,000 lights owned by the council have been converted from conventional ‘sodium discharge’ lighting to LED lighting.

In October an accelerated programme of work will begin to tackle the remainder.

It’s estimated that the total cost of the conversion work will be £6.3m. Of this 44% is being paid through an interest-free loan from Salix Finance.

The conversion will save the council more than £1m a year in reduced energy and maintenance costs once the conversion is complete, and save almost 7,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

Dean Carroll, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways, visited Baschurch recently to see the replacement of a street light with a brand new LED unit (see video above).

Councillor Carroll said: “Shropshire Council is responsible for 20,000 streetlights and all are being replaced with LEDs. This will save money for the council and for council tax payers, and reduce carbon emissions.

“Converting our remaining streetlights to LED lighting is something that will save us well over £1m a year once the conversion programme is complete. Not only will we be saving on future energy and maintenance costs, we will also be reducing the council’s carbon footprint – which is great news all round.”