More than 150 street lights across the city centre and along surrounding roads are being upgraded from the existing high pressure sodium (HPS) globes to energy efficient LEDs.
The project will save more than 500 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year—the equivalent of taking about 150 cars off the road, and save Wyndham City Council roughly $100,000 per year.
Wyndham City’s Environment and Sustainability portfolio holder Cr Heather Marcus said there were plenty of advantages of switching to LEDs.
“Unlike the existing lights, these don’t contain toxic chemicals like mercury which are then released when damaged,” Cr Marcus said.
“An LED light lasts between 10 and 20 years, which is up to five times the life of the existing lights—so not only are we saving energy and money, we’re also saving on maintenance,” she added.
Cr Kim McAliney
“Our very own annual Community Safety Survey found that when we installed lights at Station Place, 64 per cent of residents felt safer as a result”
Safer Communities portfolio holder Cr Kim McAliney said the installation of LED lights would improve safety in the area.
“A number of studies conducted right across the world have found a correlation between crime and lighting,” Cr McAliney said, adding that the collective results of 13 different studies across the UK and America showed that improved lighting can reduce crime by 20 to 30 per cent.
“Our very own annual Community Safety Survey found that when we installed lights at Station Place, 64 per cent of residents felt safer as a result,” Cr McAliney.
The new lights also point downward to the road, reducing glare for drivers and light pollution into neighbouring homes. Almost 12,000 streetlights were upgraded across residential streets across the municipality as part of the Lighting the West project, a partnership between Wyndham City, Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay councils with Federal Government funding.
The original Lighting the West project ran from July 2014 to May 2016. Wyndham City has decided to continue the project by changing lights through town centres. It will begin in Werribee’s City Centre, and then continue into main areas of other Wyndham suburbs and major roads with 1,000 lights to be changed in the coming months.
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