Street lighting in Southampton

Street lighting in Southampton is maintained as part of a contract between Southampton City Council and Tay Valley Lighting, with services delivered by ENERVEO.

The 25-year Street Lighting Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was signed in 2010.

The first five years of the contract involved the upgrade of the council’s street lights using the latest technology. This:

• Provides essential energy savings
• Minimises light pollution
• Reduces the overall number of street lights across the city to provide a more sustainable system for the future

For the remaining 20 years of the contract, the focus is on maintaining and operating the council’s lights to a very high standard and looking at future innovation (for example LED technology)

Street lighting between 1-5.30am

Turning off streetlights during part of the night, in certain areas of the city, formed part of the proposals in this year’s budget consultation to deal with the national rising costs of energy, reduce CO2 emissions and bring ecological benefits. From Friday 1 December 2023, street lighting will be switched off between 1am and 5.30am.

Summer and winter settings

The council has configured its streetlighting control system to provide a balance between energy cost reduction and useful lighting to road users. This has resulted in different ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ settings.

During the summer months (May to September inclusive), after 5.30am each morning, streetlights will not automatically switch back on unless the surrounding light levels are low enough. October to April inclusive is our winter period, when the early morning switch on will automatically occur, with a staged return to standard levels of street lighting before the usual daytime switch off.

There may therefore be some variation of precisely when early morning light-up occurs, particularly during the month of September as autumn arrives.

Discussions with emergency services and other partners

We have met with Hampshire Constabulary and have carefully monitored the impacts of the part-night lighting initiative we implemented in April. No noticeable rises in criminal activities or changes in policing issues have been found.

Neighbouring local authorities have implemented the turning off of street lights and 67% of our consultation respondents were in support of Southampton adopting the same approach. Some national studies have shown that certain crimes actually reduce in residential areas where streetlights are turned off.

We have worked closely with a variety of stakeholders across the city including the police and other emergency services, as well as experts at Southampton City Council and our Highways and Citywatch partners at Balfour Beatty. During this work, we identified a series of 'exemption' areas, which will have the lights left on for the entirety of the night.

We will continue to work with these stakeholders to monitor this initiative.

Exemptions

To summarise, the following areas have been identified as exempt from this initiative:

• The City Centre
• District and local Shopping Centres, including those in Bitterne, Woolston, Portswood and Shirley
• The Classified Road network
• Main roads across the city (typically the roads in and out of residential areas and/or key bus routes)
• Key CCTV monitoring locations
• Areas of high public patronage such as hospitals and community hubs
• Known anti-social behaviour hotspots
• Certain streets due to traffic calming measures
• Roads on which there are high risks of traffic accidents
• Parks (where highway lighting extends to these areas)
• Safe routes home, as identified by educational establishments
• Lighting which is not on the public highway such as council housing and leisure land

Using this map, you can search to see if a light is part of this initiative. You can also use the FAQs below to find out more:

Frequently Asked Questions

Damaged or faulty street lights