Street lighting columns and lit road signs are key in preventing road traffic collisions by providing better visibility of traffic, pedestrians, junctions and other road features.

If a column is damaged beyond repair and must be replaced, the Street Lighting team work as quickly as possible to achieve this, and occasionally will highlight and address a need to improve the lighting provided in an area to reduce the recurrence of Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs).

One tool in reducing the cost and impact of RTCs is installing equipment that is resistant to impact, such as illuminated bollards that are designed to ‘return to their original shape’ after a vehicle impact, enabling continued lighting of risky junctions, reducing risk to other drivers, and reducing the costs of emergency callouts.

It costs the Council’s Street Lighting Department around £24,000 a year to repair and replace street light columns and lit road signs that have been hit by vehicles in RTCs, this figure includes criminal damage and damage caused to power cables by companies digging in the roads.

The Street Lighting team diligently chase all incidents to recover costs from the individual or company responsible and limit the amount which comes from their budget; intended for maintaining street lights at a high standard and introducing new schemes to provide additional lighting for roads.

Information is provided to the Council by the police, DVLA, CCTV footage, eyewitness testimony, and Road Opening Notices (a notice which, by law, must be provided by any company intending to open a hole in a public highway), and helps them to recover these costs. In the last three years £55,000 of damage costs has been recovered by the Street Lighting team, who are continually working with police and other organisations to increase the amount of costs recovered.

Further information:
www.bathnes.gov.uk/streetlighting
e-mail: street_lighting@bathnes.gov.uk