A council says it is nearly done installing new street lighting across Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire County Council is currently working to convert all of the county’s street lighting to more efficient LED lighting by the end of March.

The council says it is completing the final stages of the countywide project in Three Rivers.

Once finished, all of Hertfordshire’s street lighting will be under one central control system - with the exception of some areas where specialist lighting is in place.

Councillor Phil Bibby, the County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Environment, said: “It’s fantastic that the process of installing these highly efficient LED streetlights across the county has almost been completed and, with the intelligent control system in place, we can make some big savings by dimming and switching off lights when they’re not needed.

“It also means that if there are good reasons to leave the lights on longer in various areas, we may now be able to do this without increasing our energy usage.”

The switch to LED streetlights is part of a 60 per cent reduction in carbon emissions from street lighting – avoiding almost 12,000 tonnes of CO2 a year – as well as saving Hertfordshire’s taxpayers around £5 million a year on the council’s electricity bill.

The council is responsible for around 116,000 streetlights, 70,000 of which are on for part of the night, switching to full power at dusk and dimming to 50 per cent power at 9pm.

They then reduce to 30 per cent power at 11pm, before switching off at 1am. They come back on at full power at 5am and stay on until dawn.

A total of 46,000 streetlights - mainly on A-roads and at junctions - are on all night.

They switch to full power at dusk, dimming to 75 per cent power between 11pm and 6am, then increasing to full power until dawn.