Leeds street lights upgrade plan approved

Leeds has about 92,000 light to upgrade

A £30m upgrade to make about 92,000 street lights in Leeds more energy efficient has been approved.

It could save about £3.4m a year, at current energy prices, after the four-year programme is complete, Leeds City Council said.

The council currently spends about £4.8m annually on electricity to run the street lights.

About 6,000 of the city's lights are already due to be converted to LED lighting that is cheaper to operate.

The remaining 86,000 are to be converted over a four-year period starting in summer 2019, the council said.

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode and the lights first appeared in pocket calculators and digital watches in the 1960s

They are now used in everything from car headlights to camera flashes and home lighting.

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The council's executive board heard converting the remaining lights to LED lamps would cost £25.4m and another £5m would be spent on technology to control the system.

Councillor Richard Lewis of Leeds City Council said: " With energy costs expected to rise, this is one area where we can make huge savings in cost and energy use, and it will pay for itself in ten years.

"There's also potential for future savings because we'll be able to do things like dimming street lights from a distance away."