Street lighting, road signs and bollards

There is no legal requirement on local authorities in the UK to provide street lighting. The Council does have a duty to ensure that lighting units are kept in safe condition. 

The Council does not have a statutory requirement to provide street lighting, it has powers to install street lighting if it wants to but is not legally required to do this.

When it chooses to provide lighting for the highway, it must maintain it in a safe condition. The Council has no obligation to provide lighting to private frontages beyond the highway. The Council also has a duty to consider the effects of its decisions on crime and disorder.

Dimming is reducing the output of light from the streetlamps, lowering the lighting levels and reducing energy.

Implementation will start on 1 July 2025. It will take approximately two-three weeks for around (16,000) lights to be re-programmed across Bedford Borough.

The two reasons for this change - environmental and financial. 

The Council is committed to becoming a ‘net zero’ authority by 2030. Net zero refers to the point when greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere are balanced with their removal, so that there is no overall addition to atmospheric levels. 

There will also be benefits of reduced carbon emissions and light pollution, less energy consumption and reduced energy costs for the Council.

The Council needs to make significant savings over the next four years.

The Council made a policy decision to dim all streetlighting across the Borough, via its normal democratic decision-making processes. The street lighting team cannot consider complaints relating to this policy decision.

 Yes, there is no statutory requirement that local authorities in the UK provide public lighting. The law states that:

• The Highways Act empowers local authorities to light roads but does not place a duty to do so.
• The Council has a duty of care to road users and has an obligation in some circumstances to illuminate some types of street furniture or traffic calming features.
• The Council has a statutory duty under the Highways Act to ensure the safety of the highway and this includes any lighting equipment placed on the highway.
• The Electricity at Work Regulations impose a duty on owners and operators of electrical equipment to ensure its safety.

Each light switched to the amended dimming regime will save approximately 50% of its energy consumption and CO2 emissions (figure based this year’s costs). 

There are also environmental benefits to this with significant carbon and light pollution or ‘sky glow’ reductions.

The dimming of streetlights changes throughout the year for a few reasons.

The lights are controlled by sensors. But because the Earth's orbit isn't a perfect circle and its axis is tilted, there's a natural variation in daylight hours, causing streetlights to turn on and off a bit earlier or later.

This natural variation is most noticeable in early November when the sun seems to set faster, and by mid-February, it appears slower. So, streetlights might not match our usual sense of time during these periods.

On top of these factors, things like power fluctuations or cloudy weather can also affect when the streetlights dim.

If you are parking your vehicle overnight on the road, you do have a responsibility to park in a manner to ensure other road users can see your vehicle. 

The Highway Code has the following rules for parking at night:

• You must not park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space.
• All vehicles must display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30mph (48km/h).
• Cars, goods vehicles not exceeding 1525 kg unladen weight, invalid carriages, motorcycles and pedal cycles may be parked without lights on a road (or lay-by) with a speed limit of 30mph (48km/h) or less if they are:
   
  • at least 10 metres (32 feet) away from the junction, close to the kerb and facing in the direction of the traffic flow.
  • in a recognised parking place or lay-by
• Other vehicles and trailers, and all vehicles with projecting loads, must not be left on a road at night without lights.

Please note that a recognised parking place is defined by the Highway Code as “bays marked out with white lines on the road as parking places”.

Generally, in most residential areas there will be no recognised parking places, except in some cases - for example disabled bays.

No. Trials were undertaken in parts of Bedford Borough, and following consultation with local members it was decided to roll out the initiative throughout the Council.

Many other councils have introduced dimming schemes successfully, without adverse effects and have made significant savings. 

With rising energy costs and reduced budgets these types of changes to street lighting are becoming more common.

No, Council Tax will not go down because of dimming. 

There are increasing pressures on the Council's funding and as with most public sector organisations, we continually need to reduce costs. Dimming is one of many measures contributing to these savings.

The experience of other councils is that there has been no increase in crime or accident levels which could be attributed to the introduction of dimming. 

One key thing to be aware of is that lighting will still be provided albeit at a reduced level, and crime rates may not be affected by this change. We will continue to work closely with the Police who will make us aware of any concerns they have.

Bedfordshire Police can ask for lights to be turned back to 100% output of lighting if it considers that there has been a significant increase in crime due to the introduction of dimming or part night lighting. Individual/public requests will only be considered if supported by the Police. 

If you have a specific concern about crime that is related to street lighting provision, please use the online form on this page. If you have general concerns about crime, you can find out how to report this to the Police via its website at beds.police.uk.

The website also gives advice on how you can try to protect yourself from common crime situations, as well as steps you can take to help other people feel safe in public places.

Lights are not dimmed on busy roads with lots of traffic. On other roads, lights are not dimmed if the Council's Road Safety Team or Bedfordshire Police raise concerns -for example where it is deemed unsafe to do so or where lights were originally installed in accident "hotspots". 

Please note that lighting is will still be provided, just at a reduced level, and accident rates may not be affected by this change. There is less traffic between the hours when the lights will be dimmed and road accidents during this timeframe are considered low.

We will continue to work closely with the Emergency Services who will make us aware of any concerns that they have.

Local authorities do not have a statutory requirement to provide public lighting. When public lighting is installed, it is in place to light areas of the highway. Lighting is not in place to protect private properties and as such, this is not taken into consideration.

Street lighting within the vicinity of a property is not an element that insurance companies will or should consider when developing home insurance or property policies.

There are challenges with using solar power for streetlights as the daylight is much shorter in the winter with the lights on for much longer, making it difficult to generate and store the energy needed to guarantee the lights full operation from dusk to dawn. 

The cost of the equipment needed along with the size of battery and panels would not be outweighed by the energy saved.

Motion-sensing switches, such as those which operate security lights, have been considered, but the cost of the equipment would outweigh any savings. 

There are also concerns about potential uneven lighting for drivers and disturbance for residents.

All Bedford Borough Council owned streetlights have been programmed to dimming operation unless covered by the exemption criteria which is a risk based approach.

Some streetlights are owned by private housing associations or Parish Councils who are responsible for paying the costs of those lights and deciding whether dimming is appropriate. 

Risk assessment work has identified some exemptions. These are situations where the lights will remain at their current lighting intensity and regime for safety reasons, for example at zebra crossings or vertical traffic calming features.

Unfortunately not, dimming will be applied consistently to all areas. 

There is no statutory requirement on local authorities in the UK to provide public lighting.

The Council has contacted Bedfordshire Police, East of England Ambulance Service and Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service as part of the consultation. Their comments have been carefully considered and they have raised no objections to the proposed changes. 

However, officers in the Council will continue to work closely with these key stakeholders to monitor any impacts arising from change.

There are no plans to review the principles of dimming. Once the implementation of dimming is completed and bedded in, a period of reflection on operational concerns will take place with decisions made at that point.

We have looked at how this will impact specific roads, junctions and towns/villages. Our officers carried out risk assessments the following exemptions apply:

Exemptions 

When lighting levels will remain at 100%, as originally designed or, at a reduced level based on a risk assessment:

• Vertical traffic calming features such as speed bumps.
• Zebra crossings.
• Town centres - extent to be determined by the Council.
• Where there are evidenced increases in night-time vehicular accidents between 8pm and 10pm. This means accidents which are of greater severity at conflict areas such as roundabouts or key junctions.
•  Where there is evidence of increased night-time crime and anti-social behaviour between 8pm and 10 pm.

The Council has contacted Bedfordshire Police, East of England Ambulance Service and Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service as part of the consultation, and they have raised no objections to the proposed changes. However, officers in the Council will continue to work closely with these key stakeholders to monitor any impacts arising from change. 

If a very high-risk situation occurs, the Police could ask the Council to re-instate the lighting back to previous levels. This could be done for a period of three months to aid police investigation. 

Should other issues arise, or key metrics increase, the Council has the means to re-instate the lighting levels to previous levels utilising its Central Management System that is used to control streetlights in the Borough, while ongoing monitoring is undertaken.

The Council will monitor other hazards to see if any of the following issues are increasing between 8pm and 10pm:

• Increased interactions between pedestrians and street furniture.
• Increased conflict between vehicles (not just at key roundabouts or junctions).
• Increased conflict between vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists, (not just at key roundabouts or junctions).

If there is sufficient evidence of harm, actions could include adding visible strips to streetlights or signs, or the temporary or permanent decision to revert lighting to the previous level.

If your query has not been answered in any of our FAQs please email Highways.Helpdesk@bedford.gov.uk.