Priority streets for lighting improvements sorted
Cloverlea streets around Sutherland Cres are next on the list for improved street lighting in Palmerston North.
Residents in many parts of the city have complained about dark spots which became more apparent after the recently-completed conversion of street lights to LED bulbs.
Council transport and infrastructure manager Robert van Bentum has updated city councillors on progress in correcting the problems in streets where the council already knew there were not enough street lights in the right places. It has embarked on a six-year, near $6 million programme to make it right. Neighbourhoods around Chippendale Cres, Apollo Parade and Kentucky Way have already been attended to.
The contract has been let for the Sutherland Cres area, and design work has been done for areas including Panako Place and Havelock Ave and Dittmer Drive.
Van Bentum said the designs for retro-fitting the street lighting were in line with what was required to ensure street lighting achieved compliance with New Zealand standards. ‘‘There is clearly a noticeable improvement in the light levels.’’
That was expected to provide a greater level of safety.
Councillor Lorna Johnson, who fielded a lot of the public criticism of the changeover to LED lighting in neighbourhood streets, said that while it was good to see progress, it would still be six years before some streets had compliant lighting.
She was keen for staff to report to councillors promptly if there were any problems with cost over-runs, or slowing of progress.
Van Bentum said the council was taking a staged approach to keep each year’s programmed spending under $1m to get the best benefits from NZ Transport Agency subsidies. There had been some extra costs in the first streets where some underground asbestos cement cable ducts had been found to be of poor quality and needed to be replaced. Van Bentum said LED lighting was starting to provide considerable savings in power use, and would require less maintenance in the longer term.
A report would come back to the council to demonstrate the power savings later this year.