The council will have to spend around £250,000 to replace street lights less than 15 years after installing them.

The "Cosmopolis" lanterns were installed throughout the borough between 2008 and 2010.

Over time, such lighting systems develop faults and need replacement parts, and since their installation, advancements in alternative technology such as LEDs means that parts for Cosmopolis lanterns are harder to find.

Minutes from a recent council meeting show that it is now “experiencing difficulty” in obtaining replacement parts for these units, with the price of the lamps alone said to have “increased notably”.

There are approximately 1,286 Cosmopolis lanterns scattered throughout Bolton.

The council now plans to replace the lamps inside each unit with LEDs.

They will be replaced as and when lamps become faulty, but also on an area-by-area basis.

The cost of retrofitting the lamps with LEDs is estimated to cost £250,000.

LEDs, or light emitting diodes, are much cheaper to run, however, and the costs of maintenance are much lower.

The council says that the savings on parts and electricity will result in a payback period of less than two years.

It is estimated that LED unit alone will deliver a 58 per cent saving on purchase whilst a 43 per cent saving will be generated through reduced energy consumption.

This is also the motivation behind the council’s recent drive to replace the rest of the borough’s street light lamps with LEDs – something that councils across the country are doing.

Over the last decade the council has been amid a project to replace bulbs in streetlights across the borough with LEDs.

Bolton Council save energy thanks to LED street lights

This project is close to completion, and the energy benefits are already paying dividends.

Minutes from a recent council meeting state: “At this present point in time, approximately 93 per cent of the asset has been replaced with LEDs and energy consumption is down by 45 per cent.”

At a time when high energy prices are dominating the headlines, this is a welcome boost.

The minutes added: “Unfortunately, energy prices have continued to rise - considerably so recently - and had the service not continued to deliver the programme, costs to the council would be considerable over this period and beyond.”

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