Maidenhead & Windsor

A move towards making Maidenhead local street lighting more efficient, cost-effective – and greener – has been given the go-ahead with new ways of both buying energy and of bringing 13,000 borough lamp columns into the 21st century.

Cabinet, meeting on Thursday February 22, switched on a process that enables the council to go forward with ‘an exciting opportunity’ to:

* get better value for money

* replace the Maidenhead borough’s lamp columns as needed

* use modern, green methods of lighting local streets

* reduce energy consumption and costs

* maintain a quality service and

* extend partnership working to bring added benefits to the local community.

The two-pronged initiative will mean:

* saving money by joining with four other Berkshire local authorities – Slough, Reading, Wokingham and Bracknell – to bulk buy energy for street lighting and

* reducing the Maidenhead borough’s carbon footprint and cutting night sky pollution by working closely with a new contractor to bring in more modern street lighting.

Cllr Antony Wood, lead member for Maidenhead traffic and transport, explained that with the two current street lighting contracts coming to an end – for energy buying and lamp column maintenance – the council could shine a new light on its street lighting operation.

He said: “This is an exciting opportunity to take a radical approach that will result in efficient and effective street lighting and at the same time make a real saving on energy use.”

The Maidenhead council’s search for a new contractor will start next month, with the aim of making an appointment in the autumn. This will mean the contractor and the council can then work closely together to bring about improvements, including:

* more efficient lights – i.e. changing the current orange glow to white, which requires less electricity

* modern control systems to adjust light levels according to time of day and available natural light and

* light pollution control – directing light downwards to prevent it getting into people’s homes or going upwards into the night sky and obliterating the stars.

Another key element of the new initiative will be looking at alternative sources of energy.

Maidenhead Cllr Wood explained: “The council already buys a considerable amount of green energy through its contractor. However, we need to look at how we can use the sun and wind to power more of our street lighting, for example solar panels sited near underpasses to provide the power needed to keep them light and bright 24 hours a day.

“This is the kind of innovation we want to introduce in the Royal Borough. By appointing a new contractor later in the year we can work closely with them and use their expertise to help bring about changes that will really make a difference to efficiency, cost effectiveness and to reducing the council’s carbon footprint.”

Cabinet agreed a Maidenhead street lighting framework that will form the basis for negotiation of the new contract, to be advertised in March.

A further more detailed report on the proposal for bulk buying energy – being led by Bracknell Forest on behalf of the five participating authorities – will be available in the next few weeks.

To allow the council time to take the new street lighting plans forward, current contracts with Southern Electric Contracting and with Scottish & Southern have been extended to end in March 2008. The new arrangements would take effect from April 1 that year.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead