Street Lighting Improvements - Greswolde Park Road

The LED lighting revolution returns to Acocks Green in 2014. It took a serious fight to get the whole of Woodcock Lane relit last year, as Amey initially denied that the rail bridge was part of the highway. It took weeks of nagging, site visits and eventually having the archives exhumed to prove that it was indeed part of the highway and should be properly lit.

Now, the new lights are coming to Greswolde Park Road, comfortably the worst lit street in the ward now we've sorted Woodcock Lane.

The new lighting columns are placed towards the back of the pavement so that they cast light onto the footpath and the road itself. The light is directed downwards and not into gardens or houses and the positioning also reduces the number of lights damaged through collisions. The lights are also much cheaper to run - halving the city council's streetlighting electricity bill and the carbon emissions. As the lighting is more effective than existing lamps, the

Work is due to start in the week beginning 13 January 2014.

It may take several weeks to complete and there may be a delay between the columns being installed, having them connected to the supply and then the old columns removed.

This work is reasonably non-intrusive - but it will not be possible to park by columns that are being installed or removed and there will be trenches and holes dug to allow cables to be installed. Any open trenches will be barriered off in the meantime.

If there are any problems, please contact Highways on 0121 303 6644 (option 4).

Illuminating Woodcock Lane

Stewart and I have been working very hard on keeping Woodcock Lane at the top of the list for urgent replacement of the streetlighting on the road, pushing Amey to prioritise it, given that it is probably the worst lit street in the ward and has some blocks of accommodation used by our most vulnerable residents.

I'm delighted that we can now announce that this is about to start.

The work is due to start on the 13 May and is scheduled to take about 30 days in total, working between 8am and 6pm on weekdays, with the possibility of some Saturday work. It isn't unusual for there to be a delay between the new columns being installed and for the connection to the power supply to be completed - this part of it is done by electricity operator and not Amey, so has to work to their timetable.

The new lamp posts will be installed towards the back of the pavement so that they cast light across both the road carriageway and the footpath.  This also means that they are less likely to be hit by motorists. The new lamps will be LED types, which save up to 60% on energy bills and because they direct the light downwards - where it is actually used - they reduce light pollution. The difference is striking.