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Street Lighting Advice for Local Authorities
Introduction
This guidance is intended to help explain the legal position for UK Local Authorities regarding their responsibilities for the provision and maintenance of street lighting in the public domain. In addition, it will also discuss a few of the lighting strategies used by Local Authorities across the UK.
The UK has 382 Local Authorities spread across four Countries. Although the Office of National Statistics does not record the official number of street lights, the UK Roads Liaison Group collected data from 210 Councils across the UK. Their data set recorded 7,190,166 street lights of various design in their study. UK Government public sector expenditure on street lighting for the year 2022/23 was £884 million.
As many as up to 70% of UK Local Authorities who are responsible for street lighting now operate a dimming or partial night-time switch-off strategy in order to manage budgets and reach NET ZERO targets.
Street lighting is considered a public good, and as such individuals cannot be charged for or excluded from using it. Street lighting is seen by the general public as a given and basic commodity that Local Authorities provide. Good quality street lighting offers cost savings to other services as the provision of lighting may reduce accidents.
In many areas where street lighting hours have been reduced this has been largely gone unnoticed with little or no reported impact on safety or mobility, however, there can be strong community feelings where lights have been switched off. Street lighting at night can give residents in urban and suburban areas a sense of security. As such, the removal of this public good can be perceived negatively by local communities.
Any proposed changes to street lighting provision should be discussed with the emergency services and take into consideration any known hazards in the area.
There is plenty of evidence supporting claims that in well-lit areas hazard spotting and hazard perception increases and accident figures drop. There is less evidence to support claims that where street lighting is removed crime figures increase.
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