New lights set to cut bills

Far North District Council infrastructure and assets manager David Penny with one of the new LED streetlights. Photo / File

New streetlights in the Far North are expected to cut the council's annual lighting maintenance bill by as much as 40 per cent over the next two years.

The Far North District Council is replacing sodium and mercury vapour lighting systems with energy-efficient LED lamps and long-life bulbs.

Infrastructure and assets general manager David Penny said the energy-efficient lamps and long-life bulbs would reduce power and maintenance costs, with the savings more than making up for the cost of the upgrade.

As well as savings of more than $30,000 a year, the LED systems gave more intense white light.

The council had prioritised streetlights in outlying areas for new lamps and bulbs because they were more expensive to maintain, due to the long distances repair crews had to travel.

The initiative had been made possible by a new arrangement with lines company Top Energy, which would continue to install and maintain the Far North's streetlights services but with a clearer separation of administrative responsibilities than in the past.

The new management model had already attracted the interest of other local authorities.

Mr Penny says a backlog of fault repairs, caused by a dispute over streetlight maintenance, had now been almost fully cleared. "A very small number of outstanding faults remain, which will all be addressed as part of the systematic lamp replacement initiative. Repairs on these four or five lights would have been too expensive to carry out on a one-off basis," he said.

Most communities could expect better lighting and improved service under the new maintenance system.