Peterborough street lights remain on ‘24/7’ due to fault

The city council has admitted the problem which a senior councillor said is affecting around 80 per cent of Peterborough’s street lights.

Approached for comment from the Peterborough Telegraph, a Peterborough City Council spokesperson said: “We have recognised a fault within a proportion of our street lights and are undertaking work to reprogramme them which we anticipate will fix the issue.”

No further information was provided, but Cllr Nick Sandford, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat group, said the issue has been ongoing since last Thursday.

Last year, the council finished upgrading 17,000 street lights to energy-efficient LEDs.

It then agreed to dim street lights in residential areas by 20 per cent between 9.30pm and 5am, by 20 per cent on traffic routes between 9pm and midnight, and by 40 per cent between midnight and 5am.

At the time the council argued that the quality of the new lights meant residents would notice little to no difference, while the cash-strapped authority would save £100,000 a year.

Cllr Sandford told the PT: “This problem was first identified last Thursday. It appears to be a general problem across the whole of Peterborough with the new LED lights. The vast majority are on permanently.

“When the council converted to LED lights we were told they would solve all the maintenance problems as if they went wrong they would report problems automatically.

“This is a pretty gigantic problem affecting around 80 per cent of Peterborough’s street lights which have been on 24/7 since last Thursday.

“This is a massive waste of electricity.”

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