Member Article

Firm chosen for £40m Kent LED streetlight scheme

Kent County Council has announced that infrastructure firm Bouygues Energies & Services has been awarded the £40m contract to convert the county’s streetlights to energy-efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology.

The work, which will see all 118,000 of Kent’s streetlights converted, is due to begin in residential areas in March with a projected completion date of May 2019.

The council claims that, once completed, the upgrade scheme will save Kent taxpayers up to £5.2m as, not only are the LED lights more energy efficient, they also give the council the ability to monitor and adapt lighting levels in the future.

The £40 million project is partly funded by a £22 million interest-free loan from SALIX, a government organisation, funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

With Kent’s current energy and maintenance bill from streetlights and lit signs standing at £9.5m a year, Matthew Balfour, Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, believes the scheme will be good value for the county’s residents.

He commented: “By embracing LED lighting in one of the largest projects of its kind in the United Kingdom, we can make significant savings to our electricity bill and cut our carbon footprint. We will prioritise residential areas before tackling town centres, and the main roads.”

Edward Peeke, Managing Director of Bouygues Energies and Services Infrastructure, added: “Kent County Council has shown true leadership in tackling its challenges by embarking on this transformation project.

“We look forward to working with our colleagues at the council to deliver this scheme and to playing our part in supporting the economic and sustainable benefits the project will bring locally.

“This is exactly the approach we believe needs to be adopted across the country to move to a low energy, low maintenance street lighting network.”