Let there be light

Over the years Wiltshire Council has rejected Liberal Democrat Councillors calls for the Council to invest in LED street lighting. LED lights are cheaper, better and environmentally friendly.

Sadly, our words fell on deaf ears until now.

Currently just 3% of our County's our 45,000 existing lights are LED. Lighting Wiltshire's highways, car parks and amenity spaces costs‎ £1.9m a year. Electricity costs rose by 7% last year alone.

LED lighting uses far less power than traditional lighting. So, the speedier action we proposed would have saved both Wiltshire's hard-pressed Council Tax p‎ayers some money as well as our environment.

Finally, Wiltshire Council has seen the light. A welcome £12.3m will now be invested on LED lights over the next two years. Although their universal plans to dim lights between 8pm and 6am needs greater flexibility and community consultation to our eyes.

This change of heart shows, just as the Council's U-turn on introducing Sunday car parking charges did, that where Liberal Democrats lead the Conservatives follow, eventually‎.