Councils cash plea for aid on £1m street lighting bill

Jul 18 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

SOARING energy costs are pushing two North East councils to spend almost £1m more than budgeted on street lighting.

Northumberland is now writing to the Government pleading for help in meeting its £325,000 electricity bill.

And bosses in County Durham are facing an even bigger cost, with their shortfall now expected to exceed £600,000 by April after recent rises in energy costs.

The two authorities last night said they were in a similar position to householders, who were recently warned of a 40% rise in domestic bills.

But they stressed there was no prospect of cutting services to meet the huge shortfalls.

Northumberland and Durham are already wrestling with the complex task of introducing all-purpose unitary authorities next year.

County councillors in Northumberland have been warned their street lighting budget is heading for a £325,000 overspend by the end of March – and executive members are to write to the Government asking for financial aid.

In County Durham, senior officers say their budget for powering the 78,000 street lights and 5,500 illuminated traffic signs could be overspent by £600,000.

Northumberland’s new Liberal Democrat administration has been told the street lighting budget was overspent by £34,000 last April. The trend is expected to continue throughout the financial year, resulting in a final overspend of £325,000.

Executive member for highways and operations, Coun Alan Thompson, said: “This is a serious situation and the rising cost of electricity is pushing our street lighting budget up. We are trying to amalgamate seven separate councils into one and problems like this just make the whole process that much more difficult.

“We need levels of funding from the Government that are appropriate to the budgetary problems we are facing up to at the moment.”

Durham County Council acting corporate director for the environment, Roger Elphick, said the authority had been expecting a £200,000 overspend on its £2.8m budget for street lighting energy costs by April, but had now learned it was likely to be much higher.

He said: “We were informed there could be a further 15% increase in costs, which has not yet been confirmed, but would put the overspend up to £600,000. There has been a huge increase in energy costs – at least 40% – over the last year.”

A South Tyneside Council spokeswoman said local authorities had recently been warned of a 15% rise in their electricity costs, but it was not yet known how badly this would affect street lighting budgets.

She said: “We have installed more energy-efficient street lighting columns as part of a PFI contract and this will lead to a reduction in our electricity consumption.” Newcastle City and North Tyneside Councils said they did not expect any overspending on their lighting budgets because of contractual arrangements.

A North Tyneside spokeswoman said: “We use the North East Purchasing Organisation (Nepo) to purchase electricity. By purchasing at a high volume, in partnership, it enables councils to benefit from better prices.

“The flexible contract allows us to purchase when the market is most favourable.’’