30/8/2005 - Cabinet considers £500,000 for streetlights in Barrow and Copeland

Cumbria County Council cabinet will consider spending half-a-million pounds improving street lighting on Walney Island in Barrow and at Kells in Copeland.

Cabinet members will decide on Wednesday, 7th September, whether £500,000 should be spent tackling specific electricity supply cabling problems and replacing street lighting columns in these areas.

If the spending is approved, £400,000 will go to replace and rewire up to 500 streetlights on Walney Island. In Kells, £100,000 would tackle around 175 lights.

This would be in addition to the money already allocated to these areas this year from capital funds for replacing lighting columns. In Barrow’s case, £116,000, and in Copeland's, £90,000.

Street lighting in Kells and on Walney Island suffer from the fact that many lights are on a "looped supply". This means that the cabling connects chains of streetlights to the electricity supply in such a way that, when one light fails, others down the chain go out because they deprived of power.

Jack Richardson, cabinet spokesman for transport and infrastructure, said: "The overall street lighting situation in Cumbria is no worse than anywhere else in the country, but these two areas have specific problems with the way in which street lighting cables were laid many years ago. I am recommending that cabinet approves the funding for Barrow and Copeland area committees to tackle looped supplies in these two areas."

Cabinet meets at the Courts in Carlisle at 10am on Wednesday, 7th September