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Knowsley Council is set to invest £30 million in government funding to replace the majority of the borough’s street lighting and traffic signs.

An innovative bid to the Department of Transport to replace more than 70% of Knowsley’s existing street lighting with modern, brighter intelligent street lighting has been successful. The project will also include the replacement of some traffic signs, bollard, beacons and subway lights.

Knowsley is the only council in Merseyside and the third in the North West to introduce such an inventive scheme, which has been proven to help drive down crime and improve road safety because of improved lighting.

The project is funded through a 25-year private finance initiative (PFI) and the next stage is to invite tenders to implement the five year project, which is due to start early 2010.

Leader of Knowsley Council, Cllr Ron Round said: “The improvements will make Knowsley feel safer and the upgrading of traffic signals, along with better lighting, will help reduce accidents and increase road safety. This is a major project that is set to transform our streets by making them brighter and increasing reassurance that our streets are safe at night.”

The new lights are also better for the environment as they contribute to the reduction of light pollution and energy consumption.

Knowsley has already seen a 15% reduction in road accidents this year and crime is down by more than 21%. This initiative will help Knowsley Council to continue this trend while making residents feel even safer on their streets.

The project could also create many innovative solutions for Knowsley including CCTV coverage at vulnerable sites and appropriate traffic junctions, remote monitoring of street lighting outages and if appropriate Wi-Fi or infra red communications. These innovations would be determined through negotiation with the company selected to be the preferred service provider.

For further information contact 0151 443 2221/3537.

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