Doncaster ahead of much of UK in replacing street lamps with LEDs
Only Manchester, London and Sunderland are ahead of the South Yorkshire district
Last updated 10th Aug 2021
Doncaster has been praised after new figures show that the council installed tens of thousands of LED street lights over the past five years.
Data comparing towns and cities shows the borough put up over 46,000 LED street lights – the fourth highest in the UK since 2016.
Only London, Sunderland and Manchester have installed more LED lights than Doncaster in the same time period.
Borough councils in the capital installed nearly 250,000 since 2016 while Sunderland and Manchester put up just shy of 50,000 each.
LED’s do not contain the same harmful materials that traditional street lighting does. Experts say that conventional bulbs contain lead, mercury and emit poisonous gasses.
They add that LED bulbs can be up to 80 percent more efficient than conventional ones and a total shift across the UK has been described as a ‘huge net benefit’ for the environment.
But figures show that Crawley and Worthing councils did not install a single LED light in their respective areas.
Researchers at The Lighting Superstore have analysed the results from 61 councils over the UK to find those who have installed the most sustainable street lighting in the last five years.
Other figures showed that Doncaster was in the top 10 for residents’ complaints around street lighting with 74. But this was way down on Bolton which had 376.
A spokesman for The Lighting Superstore, said:
“It’s increasingly important for councils to take action to reduce the country’s carbon footprint. One initiative in the UK aims to increase energy efficiency by converting the nation’s streetlights to LED or other energy saving lamps.
“LED lights are great for reducing carbon emissions, because they use far less energy than conventional bulbs to produce the same amount of light.”