Streetlights

Switching off streetlamps in Stornoway during the summer would cost £1,400 more than any saving.

Around £3,403 could be shaved off the council's electricity bill but it would cost about £4,800 to change the 200 separate control units across the town in mid-May and again in mid-August.

The town streetlights were recently replaced with cheaper-to-run LED lighting units which save around 33% of the previous costs.

A council report concludes: "Taking into account likely energy savings and likely operational costs, it is clear that there would be no net saving."

Neither is it worth trying a summer-time switch-off for rural villages around the islands for the same reasons.

In any case, a complete switch-off of streetlights during the summer months would have implications for the safety of vehicular traffic and pedestrians using the roads and pavements, warns the report.

Too expensive to switch off streetlights

1 April 2016