Street lighting was in the news in the lead-up to the state budget as Local Government NSW called on the NSW Government to invest $50 million from its poles and wires sale in the transition to less expensive, more energy efficient LED lights.

LGNSW president Keith Rhoades said councils are legally responsible for street lighting but in most cases the street light itself is owned by one of the energy companies.

“These distributors are interested in maximising the returns from their street lighting business, and it is prohibitively expensive for councils to switch to cheaper, more effective and lower maintenance LED lighting,” he said.

Under the current regulatory framework, Cr Rhoades said “councils would be exposed to the full cost of the upgrade, including the inflated unrecovered cost of old street lights”.

A Bathurst Regional Council spokesperson said Centroc had been looking into the issue of LED lights on behalf of its member councils, including Bathurst. 

“Council has had preliminary discussions with Essential Energy, but a full analysis of the proposal needs to be completed,” they said.

“Council spends approximately $1 million per year on energy for street lighting.”

The spokersperson said council implemented energy efficiency measures – including an 80kW solar generation system on the library and art gallery complex that will save $21,000 per annum – as resources allowed.