Street Lighting

Leicestershire County Council is responsible for maintaining approximately 64,000 street lights and 12,000 illuminated sign units throughout Leicestershire (with the exception of Leicester City and a small number of rural Parishes).

Photo of a lighting scheme.

Why Is Lighting Provided?

Street Lighting reduces night time accidents, helps to reduce crime and the fear of crime. Appropriate street lighting increases social life by enhancing the night time environment. It provides a positive aid to commercial, leisure and tourism activities. Appropriate street lighting can allow people to make a genuine choice in their form of transport and promotes walking, cycling and the use of public transport.

How Are Lights Maintained?

All lights are usually visited at least every four years for routine maintenance work. This process entails cleaning the lantern optics and changing the lamps. Lamps that fail prematurely have a guarantee and costs are recovered from the manufacturer and all used lamps are recycled. Electrical inspection and tests together with structural inspections are carried out in accordance with the appropriate guidance within 6 years.

Night patrol van.

Faults are mainly detected by our night patrol staff. Each unit is visited at night, generally on a fortnightly basis. We will endeavour to repair faults within 4 working days. Occasionally however faults occur with the electricity supply cable. In these instances we will notify Central Networks, who are the electricity distribution network operator but the repair may take up to 4 weeks.

If you wish to report a faulty street light or illuminated sign please go to our defect report form.

Occasionally a tree may obscure the light output from a street light so that it does not light the public highway. To tell us of this type of problem please complete the form

Where Is New Lighting Installed?

Street lighting may be installed as a safety measure on roads where there is a need to reduce night time accidents and in conjunction with other traffic safety measures.New or improved street lighting may also be installed in those areas prioritised by the crime and disorder partnerships as having crime or anti-social behaviour problems.

If you wish to inform us of a location that you believe requires either new or improved street lighting please complete the form.

Street lighting is installed on new housing estates where the streets (or footpaths) are being adopted by the County Council. Developers (sometimes called builders) will have to install lighting in accordance with the County Council's requirements and are responsible for maintenance until formal adoption by the County Council takes place.

Can a Street Light be Moved?

Occasionally a street light may be located in a position which obstructs construction works, such as the widening of a driveway or a new development.

If you require a street light resiting please download the form (PDF, file size 32kb) and post to us together with a copy of your plan or sketch plan. We will provide a quote for the works and will require your written agreement to the quote prior to commencing works. The address to return the form to is at the bottom of this page.

Can Flower Baskets or Festive Decorations be Attached to Street Lights?

Yes, they can. The provision of flower baskets or festive decorations is not a highway function but the County Council will work with Parish or Town Councils to facilitate this enhancement to the environment. Street lights will need to be structurally tested to ensure that they are strong enough to support the additional loadings and the cost of the works will need to be met by the Town or Parish Council.

Downloadable forms for both Flower Baskets (PDF, file size 29kb) and Festive Decorations (PDF, file size 40kb) are available for those Parish or Town Councils who wish to promote such schemes.