STREETLIGHTS across Wokingham borough could receive £12 million of improvements over the next four years with more than 10,000 fitted with new energy efficient bulbs.

As part of a multimillion joint project Wokingham, Reading and Slough borough councils will fit LED lanterns to street lights, reducing running costs and energy consumption.

The project, which is set to be given the go ahead by council chiefs on Thursday, September 24, will be funded by a £8.12 million grant from the Department of Transport Challenge Fund and £4 million from the council.

Across Wokingham 7,700 street lights will be replaced over the course of the project with a further 5,400 adapted to host the new bulbs. This will leave around 3,000 of the old style lights in the borough.

The council is also experimenting with part-night lighting and remote dimming. They hope this will cut the carbon footprint for each lantern by around 70 per cent.

Cllr John Kaiser, executive member for highways on Wokingham Borough Council, said: “A large number of our borough’s street lights are nearing the end of their life.

"Energy expenses account for the largest cost of running street lighting and cost more than £600,000 in Wokingham Borough last year.

“Within the limited funding available from our tightening budgets, we had already started the improvement programme – in the past year we replaced some 700 columns across the borough with new LED lanterns - but this new funding means we can now embark on a larger scale replacement project and therefore reap the benefits, both financially and environmentally, much sooner.

“We’ve also being doing things to reduce costs and our carbon footprint. Six years ago we started to introduce a remote management system that enables dimming and part-night lighting in appropriate locations. Some 2,000 street lights are now part of the scheme.”

The project is expected to save the borough council half a million over the first four years.