Councillor Stuart Whittingham introduced a report that sought approval to accept a £4.6 million interest free loan from SALIX to deliver Phase 2 of an LED replacement programme to enable more than 27,000 street lamps to be replaced over a three year programme.

Approval was also requested to implement a procurement strategy, in accordance with Contract Procedure Rules, to enable this Phase 2 programme to be delivered. It was proposed that this strategy should also include the procurement of over 9000 life expired street lighting columns to be funded from £5.95 million of the Council’s capital funding approved by the Cabinet in March 2018.

The Cabinet noted that investment in street lighting infrastructure would enable the Council to move towards a modern, energy efficient and more reliable street lighting network that was fit for the future. This would support the delivery of the Wirral Plan Pledge to “ensure Wirral has safe, affordable, well maintained and efficient transport networks” and would also support the delivery of the Pledge to “ensure Wirral’s neighbourhoods are safe”.

This was a key decision and affected all Wards in the Borough.

Included within the report was an option to do nothing.  However, this option had been rejected as the street lighting assets were in poor condition due to a lack of previous investment resulting in significant deterioration and subsequent high maintenance revenue spending. Lack of investment increased the Council’s exposure to third party insurance claims.  Public perception regarding street lighting provision and repair was considered to be poor.

Councillor Phil Davies informed that this investment in street lighting was part of the Council’s agenda ‘to get the basics right’ and, from a community safety point of view, it was very welcome.  He congratulated Councillor Whittingham and the Highways Department for securing the investment.

Councillor Whittingham paid tribute to the staff involved in the street lighting initiative.  He reported that every single street light in the borough had been inspected and a tremendous amount of work had been carried out.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the acceptance of a £4.6 million interest free loan from SALIX to deliver Phase 2 of the LED replacement programme be approved; and

(2)  the implementation of the procurement strategy outlined in the report, in accordance with Contract Procurement Rules, to enable both the Phase 2 LED programme and the Street Lighting Column replacement programme to be delivered, be approved.