Issue details

The purpose of this report is to advise the Executive on the current arrangements for the maintenance of street lights currently owned by Fareham Borough Council.

In December 2009, Hampshire County Council entered into a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) with Scottish and Southern Electricity for the maintenance of its street lighting stock for a period of 25 years. All boroughs in Hampshire were invited to join the scheme, including Fareham.

It was agreed by the Council’s Executive Committee that Fareham’s 444 lights should be included in the PFI. However, 62 light columns were not included and therefore their maintenance would be undertaken by FBC Officers as and when required.

Currently requests to undertake repairs on these remaining Council’s lights are processed through the Council’s Building Services maintenance contractors and on occasions can be quite expensive and time consuming due to the need to hire equipment not normally used such as platform lifts to replace a light fitting.

In order to improve the current situation and reduce confusion for residents, Officers have also been liaising directly with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) Contracting with a view to including the outstanding 62 lights into the PFI contract.

There are a number of benefits of including the remaining street lights, these are as follows:-

(a)     There would only be one point of contact for all street lighting issues in the borough, regardless of whether they belong to HCC or FBC;

(b)     All issues arising in relation to street lights would be automatically dealt with for the remainder of the contract which is approximately 21 years;

(c)     Reported faults would be dealt with in a more timely efficient way as residents would be able to report the faults on line via the HCC/PFI website; see Appendix A

(d)     Other than the on-going revenue needed to fund the electricity and maintenance costs, all other expenditure would be the responsibility of the PFI, e.g. damage caused by road traffic accident, vandalism etc;

(e)     The lights to be transferred would be upgraded where necessary to more efficient technology with energy saving timers and more efficient lighting units;

Once the lights have been included all future street light installations in the borough, regardless of which department wishes to implement them, should be undertaken in accordance with current SSE specifications and with a view to them ultimately being included in the PFI.