Where and Why

All road users and residents in the County experience the effect and benefit of street lighting. The County Council is responsible for street lighting in most of the major urban areas and on main roads, except Motorways and Trunk Roads which are owned by the Highways Agency. Parish Councils are Lighting Authorities in their own right and are responsible for any lighting which they have installed. District Councils and Housing Associations also own lighting in car parks and housing areas.

Why is lighting provided?

Lighting serves many purposes - it helps to reduce night-time accidents and assists the emergency services during the hours of darkness. Good lighting helps to prevent crime and the fear of crime, contributing to personal safety and security at night.

Where is new lighting installed?

Lighting is provided as a safety measure on major roads for new roundabouts or junctions or where a need is identified by poor night-time accident statistics.

On new housing estates, in areas where the development is to be adopted by the County Council, developers are required to light roads and footpaths as an aid to movement and for security purposes. The developer remains responsible for energy costs and maintaining the lights until the development roads are finally adopted and then the County Council takes on full responsibility. On smaller developments in rural areas, the Parish Council as Lighting Authority will choose the type of lighting, or may decide that lighting is not required.

Parish Councillors - Information on Parish Lighting  (68.45 KB)
County Council Road Lighting team is always happy to assist and advise parishes with lighting issues.

How does the lighting operate?

Lighting is intended to operate throughout the hours of darkness so that it fulfils its safety and security purposes.

Because the electricity supply to a streetlight is not metered in the normal way, energy charges are based on a special metering system operated by the County Council and the Energy Supplier. This system measures a small sample of lighting, so switch on and switch off must be carefully controlled and this is achieved by the use of photoelectric cells. These use high quality electronic components and one feature of the cell is that when its life is expired it fails so that the lamp stays switched on. These day burning lamps can be easily spotted and corrected. Some older lamps are controlled by time switches which are less reliable and have to be reset by hand following power cuts, so there is an ongoing programme to replace these as quickly as budgets permit.