Maidenhead & Windsor

Street lighting across the Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough is set to become even more energy efficient thanks to the council's successful grant bid to add dimming facilities to selected lights.

The £250,000 grant from Salix - the publicly funded company set up to increase public sector investment in energy efficiency technologies - means the Windsor and Maidenhead council will be able to complete several energy reduction projects including adding dimmers to up to 1,000 of the highest wattage units around the borough over the next year.

Other proposed projects include fitting energy efficient lamps in council offices, pool covers and more efficient electric motors for the leisure centres and dimming facilities in York House car park.

As many Windsor and Maidenhead units as possible will be changed over the summer and autumn in time for the long winter nights. The move will reduce energy consumption for these lights by half when dimming comes in between midnight and 5am - when traffic is at its lightest - leading to potential savings of £8,500 a year.

While the reduction in energy used is good news for both the environment and council taxpayers, the most visible change will be the dimmed street lighting on straight stretches of main roads.

Cllr Colin Rayner, lead member for Windsor and Maidenhead highways and streetcare, said: "We have decided to go for dimming rather than switching off - as some councils have done - because, while the cost is roughly the same, this way we avoid concerns about road safety and fear of crime, which residents have told us is very important to them.

"Lights will not be dimmed at sites such as roundabouts and intersections where visibility needs to remain high for the safety of motorists and pedestrians, which is of paramount importance to this council."

In addition to Salix's welcome boost, the Windsor and Maidenhead council follows an ongoing policy of replacing defunct lights with energy-efficient units. In the last financial year there were 700 new lamps installed and 400 more have already been planned for this year.

Future grant bids will hopefully mean more lamps can be changed in a rolling programme - of the borough's 14,000 lights, half would be suitable for this treatment.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead